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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



[To go in front of Title to "Our Labor Difficulties."] 

NOTE— Whereas, some having the erroneous idea 
lhai I am opposed to machinery and wish lo prevent 
iis use, I distinctly state that nothing can be further 
from the fact. 

Briefly staled, I hold that in machinery we have 
the greatest power for good thai man ever possessed, 
thai it should he fully and perfectly developed, and 
so increased and used as to reduce lo the lowest 
point his physical toil, but not so as to deprive 
him of employment, create idleness and consequent 
demoralization of all interests. It is a question of 
adaptation lo the powers of machinery, and not of 
iis destruction. This is the tenor of all my fads 
and conclusions. See pp. 25, S3, 41, 45, 67, 92. 

11 \ GO<DWIH MOODY. 



OUR 



LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT: 



INCLUDING 



THE PAPER ON THE 



DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR BY IMPROVEMENTS 
IN MACHINERY, 



By a Committee appointed by the American Social Science Association, 

composed of lorin blodget, of philadelphia, rev. edward e. hale, 

W. Godwin Moody, John J. McNutt, and H. C. Turner, of 

Boston, and read before the Association at their 

Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, May 24, 1878, 



BY W. GODWIN MOODY. 




BOSTON: 

A. WILLIAMS & CO., 

283 Washington St. 

1878. 



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CONTENTS. 



PAGES. 

Why I Did It, 3-10 

Our Labor Difficulties, - - - - - - - - n-45 

Another View, 46-68 

Displacement of Labor by Improvements in Machinery - 69-96 



Copyright 
By W. Godwin Moody, 

1878. 

In copyrighting this work it is not intended to limit in the least degree the use of the 
matter in newspapers and periodicals, which it is hoped may be freely done, but simply to 
reserve the sole right of publication in book and pamphlet forms. 



Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



WHY I DID IT 



The following article upon our Labor Difficulties 
was mainly written just before the great railroad 
strikes of the past Summer, and is the result of the 
observations and growing convictions of more than 
thirty years of business life and observation in all 
parts of our country, and with neighboring peoples, 
as compared with the recollection of what I saw and 
heard in my childhood, and have since learned. I 
have never yet seen a discussion of the Labor Prob- 
lem based upon the facts and conditions of labor 
now as compared with the past ; nor had I ever 
heard such a view suggested before the preparation 
of this article ; yet a careful examination of the facts 
herein contained, will convince every candid mind 
that the cause of our labor difficulties is not hard to 
find ; and my conclusions will certainly prove to the 
most thoughtful that the way out of our difficulties is 
neither hidden nor difficult. 

In preparing this article I have labored under the 



iv OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

disadvantage of having no standard authorities to 
consult, nor precedents to follow, and feel most sen- 
sibly that there must be many defects and failures in 
my brief presentation of the matter, which future and 
fuller discussion will correct. But of the main facts 
and conclusions here presented, I am as confident as 
I am that daylight and the sun are inseparable ; they 
are the key notes of the situation, and as demonstra- 
ble as that two and two make four, or that three 
from five leave two. 

The next important question is, how to make these 
facts and conclusions most useful, and produce the 
most beneficial results. In my opinion the best and 
most effective way in which to make such use is, by 
memorial, laying the prominent facts before Con- 
gress, with the prayer that the real cause of our 
labor difficulties may be ascertained, to the end that 
a remedy may be found ; and that hereafter it shall 
be the duty of a special bureau to obtain, as far as 
possible, the most accurate statistics of all our indus- 
tries, whether agricultural, manufacturing, building, 
carrying, or whatever else may employ labor, and 
classify, condense, and compare production with 
consumption ; and, also, the amount and condition 
of employed and unemployed labor, and report the 
same semiannually, with such recommendations as 
will best conserve the general welfare. This bureau 
to have no duties or powers other than the collection, 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT v 

collation, and comparison of statistics, with recom- 
mendations. This course will' command not only the 
attention of Congress, but of all classes here and in 
every other industrial country, and elicit an amount 
of examination and discussion of this hitherto totally 
neglected subject that will be sure to result in much 
useful knowledge, and will enable us at once to 
reach some most important and definite conclusions. 
Not until after a thorough knowledge of the subject 
has been obtained, can remedial legislation be safely 
attempted, except in creating new home industries, 
and in protecting our present industries from injuri- 
ous foreign competition. But with the authoritative 
knowledge thus obtained, there can be little doubt 
that the people, untrammeled, and in the full light 
of a new intelligence, sustained by the power of a 
well informed public sentiment alone, will apply all 
necessary remedies. This failing, legislation may 
then be resorted to. 

Probably the first step towards the accomplishment 
of the end desired would be the appointment of a 
Commission by the General Government to examine 
into all the facts herein contained, and report for the 
instruction of Government and people. To secure 
this, or any other practical action, every man and 
woman who desires to see our prosperity rehabilitat- 
ed must appear by memorial before the Government, 
that the great body of our people may be fairly 



vi OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

represented in the demand made upon Congress, that 
it shall examine into and ascertain the cause of the 
great industrial distress of the country, and adopt 
such measures as are within its power for our relief. 
Once get the Labor Problem before Congress in the 
manner proposed, the question can be no longer ig- 
nored, nor passed over by meaningless phrases, or 
platitudes, that but serve to make most prominent the 
ignorance of those who make and utter them, but 
will command the attention it deserves, and compel 
an examination of all the facts connected with the 
great revolution in the methods of production in this 
nineteenth century, and an examination into the rela- 
tions which these new methods bear to our social and 
political condition. In this examination our Congress 
will not be alone, but will be joined by the great in- 
quiring mind of this century in the effort to solve this 
Problem of the Age. 

To give the key note to this inquiry this essay has 
been compacted into the shortest possible space that 
will allow of clearness, with facts and arguments 
that can not be refuted, that all may become pos- 
sessed of the information necessary to a proper un- 
derstanding of this problem — how simple are its 
conditions, the common interest which all have in its 
solution, and how easy and practical are the terms 
of its settlement. 

It is hoped that the press generally will help in this 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. v ii 

movement, and aid to get this question before our ra- 
tional councils in a shape that will command its earli- 
est and thorough examination. 

If the industrial classes generally will give their 
aid and support in the signing and presentation of 
this memorial, they can go before Congress this 
Winter, in the same manner, and with greater num- 
bers and power than did the people of England some 
forty years since, when they demanded and obtained 
the repeal of the Corn Laws. In this way our work- 
ingmen can wield a power that would be irresistible ; 
but in political party movements the workingmen 
waste their power in petty efforts for the spoils of 
office, in the service of demagogues. By the one 
means they will find all parties anxious to listen to 
their appeals, and to aid them. By the other means 
all parties are against them. But as a strong power 
between the two great parties, supporting only that 
which protects our own labor, success is certain. 

Strikes and violence make a bad matter worse ; no 
permanent good can be found in that direction. But 
when any considerable body of the workingmen pre- 
sent themselves before Congress, in their capacity of 
citizenship, and on behalf of their fellow workers 
present their grievances plainly, asking the attention 
of their representatives, they will not be compelled 
to call again for their answer. 

Since the great railroad strikes numbers of our 



viii OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES. 

most noted political economists, and others abroad, 
have seized the opportunity to either quarrel with the 
workingmen for showing distress and becoming vio- 
lent because they suffer, or to propose a means to 
repress and prevent distress and violence. One rails 
at the discontented workingman, calls him commun- 
ist, socialist, and spoliator of society, who must be 
compelled to content. Another insists that the Fed- 
eral army must be strengthened and stationed where 
it can be most summarily used to control the discon- 
tented. Others would prevent and punish all com- 
binations and organizations of workingmen, but do 
not object to organizations, combinations, and incor- 
porations of capitalists ; just as if such measures had 
not revolutionized or destroyed every nation that has 
attempted them. Such efforts require no answer; 
they do not touch the case. Their authors do not 
appear to understand that the condition of the work- 
ing class is a factor of importance. A paraphrase 
of the great poet will here apply. 

Hath not a workingman eyes ? Hath not a workingman hands, 
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ? fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, 
healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Winter 
and Summer, as a capitalist is ? If you prick him, does he not 
bleed ? If you tickle him, does he not laugh ? If you poison him, 
does he not die ? And if you wrong him, shall he not revenge ? 

What is now wanted is not revenge, but a rational 
movement for the right. Shall we not have it ? 



OUR 



LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 



THE Labor Problem, through distress and vio- 
lence, forces itself upon universal attention and 
will not be thrust aside ; is there not a solution ? Let 
us see. I propose to examine this question in its 
widest scope, to use universally acknowledged facts 
for evidence and illustration, and make the most di- 
rect applications. 

Labor is the o?ie condition of man's existence. 
The judgment pronounced by Jehovah fixing this 
condition is, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread, till thou return unto the ground." This judg- 
ment cannot be avoided without entailing the most 
serious consequences ; and whenever, from any cause, 
man is prevented the exercise of his right and duty 
to labor, he suffers the greatest wrong that can be in- 
flicted upon him. Yet, in the face of this Divine de- 
cree, there are said to be three millions of persons in 
the United States unemployed, who are idle by com- 
pulsion, not choice. 

9 



IO OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

The question is asked, What is the cause of this 
great want of employment ? 

The direct answer is : — 

Because of the radical change , the absolute revolu- 
tion, that has already been made, and is still making, 
in all our methods of 'production, in every producing 
industry, with the total neglect of all effort to 7iieet 
this changed condition of labor ; or, more specifically, 

Because within the present century what are called 
labor saving processes and machinery have, to a very 
great and rapidly increasing extent, in this country 
and England, supplanted manual labor and its slow 
and laborious processes of production. The same 
being true, for a less time and to a less extent, in 
Germany and other European countries. 

Labor is the means of production, and production 
is for the sole purpose of consumption by man — to 
provide for his wants — primarily for his food and 
clothing, physical and mental, and for shelter or hab- 
itation. This is the object and end of all labor, all 
employment. 

That the introduction of machinery does save la- 
bor, that is, the labor of man, to a limit not yet dis- 
coverable — substantially without limit — is unques- 
tionably true. Already it has taken all labor from 
the hands of millions — thrown them out of employ- 
ment — and is now doing the work which, until re- 
cently, was wrought by muscle alone. This is by no 
means the only effect ; it has also developed a power 
of production that can not be estimated. 

To meet this incalculabla power of production 
man's ability to consume has been in no correspond- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 1T 

ing degree increased — nor can it be. When pro- 
duction materially exceeds consumption, a serious de- 
rangement in the law of production and consumption 
must necessarily follow, injuriously affecting labor. 

The evidence in support of these propositions is 
more abundant, more indisputable, and more easily 
reached, than the evidence in support of any other 
propositions connected with political or social science. 
A little, only, of this evidence shall I use — barely 
enough to start the thinking mind upon the right 
track ; but still enough to prove a demonstration. I 
shall be as brief as possible. 

Let us examine man's power for production and 
consumption now as compared with that of our 
fathers. At the commencement of the present cen- 
tury very little labor saving machinery was in use. 
Then the farmer's best plow was of wood, iron shod, 
drawn by from one to four or more yoke of oxen, one 
man to drive the team, another to hold the plow, and 
often another to keep it clear. Result, about one and 
one-half acres plowed per day, by say two men. 

Now are used plows in gangs of two or three, or 
more, of polished steel, drawn by horses, controlled 
by one man, who rides at ease. Result, five or more 
acres per day plowed by a single man, and much 
better than by our fathers. Or steam is used, with 
still greater results, plowing an acre or more an 
hour. 

Our fathers sowed their seed by hand, taken from 
a bag slung from their shoulders. Now, a machine, 
controlled by any boy who can drive a single horse, 
will do more than three times the work in a given 



I2 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

time, and far better. Similar changes have been 
made in all the preliminary processes of agriculture. 

When the grain was ripe for the harvest our fa- 
thers would go into the field with their sickles in 
their hands, and a long day of hard work would re- 
sult in one-fourth of an acre of grain cut per man. 

Now, a man will take a reaping machine, drawn 
by one or two pairs of horses, and reap his twenty or 
more acres per day ; one man now doing the work of 
eighty but about fifty years ago. The same machine 
will do the work of twelve men, with scythes, in cut- 
ting grass. 

Our fathers bound the wheat in sheaves after it 
was cut, and stored it in their barns for the Winter's 
work for themselves, their boys, and their men ser- 
vants, in thrashing it with flails. 

Now, machines are sent into the field which gather 
it up, pile it in great heaps, where it is taken by 
other machines, and in a few hours, or a few days at 
most, it is thrashed, winnowed, sacked, and ready 
for market. 

And machinery digs the potatoes, milks the cows, 
makes the butter and the cheese. There is now 
nothing in food production without its labor saving 
process. 

Our fathers, with all their boys and men servants, 
had a full Winter's work in thrashing their wheat, 
shelling their corn, etc., and getting their small pro- 
ducts to the mill or the market. Now, after machin- 
ery has done its work in the field and barn, the iron 
horse drags the product over its roads of steel, for 
hundreds and thousands of miles, at less cost and in 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 13 

less time than it took our fathers to transport the 
same to distances not greater than fifty miles. Upon 
those roads where our fathers had hundreds and 
thousands of men and teams constantly employed in 
hauling products to market and goods to the country, 
nowhere now is a man or team so employed ; men 
and animals are released from all that labor ; new 
forces take up the work, guided and controlled by 
comparatively few minds and hands. Even our cat- 
tle and hogs are no longer required to walk to the 
shambles ; the iron horse takes them to the butcher ; 
labor saving processes slaughter them, dress them, 
prepare their flesh for the market, for the table, and 
stop only at mastication, deglutition, and digestion. 

Not long ago the farm found constant employment 
for all the sons of the farm, and many of the chil- 
dren of the city. Now, the farm furnishes employ- 
ment for but a very small number of its sons, and 
that for a few weeks or months at most in the year, 
and for the rest work must be had in the cities and 
towns, or not at all. 

To-day, one man with the aid of machinery will 
produce as much food as could be produced by the 
naked muscle and tools of a score of our fathers. 
There is now no known limit to the power of its pro- 
duction. In consumption there is no corresponding 
increase. Our fathers required, obtained, and used 
as many ounces of food per day as we do. It might 
have been different in kind and quality — nothing 
more. 

Thus we see that a man at this time, with the ap- 
pliances of the age, can produce many times more 



*4 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES. 



food than could our fathers, but can consume no 
more ; therefore a very large portion of those who 
would otherwise be food producers must find employ- 
ment elsewhere, or be without employment. Here 
we find the true reason for the stagnation in the pop- 
ulation of the older agricultural sections, and abnor- 
mal growth and crowding of the cities. 

In the time of our mothers they, with all their 
daughters, had an abundance of employment in their 
homes. Throughout our country every farm house 
possessed its looms and spinning wheels. From the 
sheep reared upon the farm was the wool taken and 
carded by our mothers, ready for spinning. The flax 
grown upon the place was by our fathers broken and 
hatcheled by hand, and made ready for the women 
folk, who, day after day, week after week, month in 
and month out, for fully or more than one-half of the 
year, were all constantly employed in carding, in 
spinning, and in weaving the woolen and linen cloths 
that clothed the family, or were traded at the store 
for tea, and coffee, and sugar, or other necessaries or 
luxuries of life. The household music of that time 
was the hum of the large spinning wheel, that rose 
and fell as the spinner receded or advanced, in con- 
cert with the more steady flow of the tones of the flax 
wheel, as with foot on treddle other members of the 
family, or women servants, spun the flax which was 
changed to linen yarn or thread. At the same time 
the constantly repeated rattle of the shuttle could be 
heard as the dexterous hand sent it flying through 
the warp, to add another thread to the web, followed 
by the stroke of the swinging beam. These opera- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 15 

tions were in constant progress in all the farm houses 
and a very large portion of the town houses. 

The never ending labor of our grandmothers must 
not be forgotten, who with nimble needle knit our 
stockings and mittens. The knitting needle was in 
as constant play as their tongues, whose music ceased 
only under the power of sleep. All, from the young- 
est to the oldest, were abundantly employed, and all 
decently clothed. 

Now, all is changed. Throughout the length and 
breadth of our land the hand card, the spinning 
wheel, and the hand loom are to be found only as ar- 
ticles without use, kept as curiosities from a past age. 

Now, the carding machine, machine spindles, and 
power looms have taken their places, and the labor 
of one pair of hands, guiding and controlling ma- 
chinery, turns out a hundred yards of cloth where 
but one yard was produced by our mothers.* 

The occupation of our grandmothers, also, is gone ; 
no more does the knitting needle keep time to the 
music of their tongues. The knitting machine, in 

* A yarn mill, in Philadelphia, in all the operations, from the receipt of the raw cot- 
ton and wool to the delivery of the manufactured article, employing only 151 persons of 
both sexes and all ages, during the month of July, 1877, working twenty-three and one- 
half days, produced 1,723,433 skeins of yarn, containing 840 yards each, which gives for 
the month a small fraction over 822,547 miles in length of yarn, or 34,980^ miles a day. 
It would require more than 100,000 women, with the old hand cards and spinning wheels, 
to have produced the same amount in the same time ; and the production to have cost no 
more, would allow less than one-half cent a day as wages. I was also informed by the 
proprietor of that mill that he was employing now but half the number of persons that 
were employed in 1872, though turning out fully as much work, having since that time re- 
furnished the mill with new machinery. This mill is but a type of other establishments, 
and indicates the great changes in producing power effected during the present decade. 
At Fall River, Massachusetts, the average weekly yield per hand, at weaving, is 1,980 
yards, or 330 yards a day. This simple statement of facts should furnish abundant food 
for reflection. 



l6 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

the hands of one little girl, will do more work than 
could fifty grandmothers with their needles. 

The consequence is, there is no more work at 
home for our farmers' daughters — they, also, must 
seek the towns and cities, where they find their sis- 
ters equally idle, and in thousands are found upon 
the streets spinning yarns and weaving webs the 
warp of which is not of wool, neither is the woof of 
linen. 

So the sewing machine has been generally intro- 
duced, and where formerly all the sisterhood were 
expert seamstresses, now, many hardly know the use 
of the needle ; the machine relieves them of this la- 
bor also. 

Our fathers in building would begin at the stump, 
and with their hands work out all the processes of 
construction. With their whipsaws they would turn 
the logs into boards ; they would hew the timber ; 
rive and shave the shingles ; dress and tongue and 
groove the flooring ; dress and prepare all the lum- 
ber for doors, windows, and wainscoting ; make the 
doors and windows, with their frames ; work out 
moldings, ornaments, and finishing of all kinds. 
With their hands and feet they worked the clay for 
their bricks, and molded them by hand. A house 
carpenter then would, with his hands, from the forest 
build and finish a house from sill to ridgepole, and 
was furnished with all the tools to do it with, many 
of which he also made. 

Now, all these various processes are wrought out 
by machinery. Machinery makes the bricks and 
saws the logs ; the planing machine does the tongue- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT j*j 

ing and grooving ; the molding machine makes the 
molding ; the doors, the windows, the blinds, the 
shingles — all, everything is done by machinery, and 
muscle is required only to put the parts together and 
in their places. Machinery does nine-tenths of the 
labor, and muscle the little remainder. In the build- 
ing business, also, the many must hunt other em- 
ployments, for, like our fathers, we can not inhabit 
two houses at one time. 

The Crispins of our father's time were thorough 
boot and shoe makers, and a numerous class. But 
now,* after labor saving processes have killed the ox 
and skinned him, and tanned his hide and dressed it, 
it does seem as if the leather was put in at one end 
of a machine, and at the other end is delivered a 
shower of boots and shoes, caught by girls and boys, 
requiring only a little finishing by them to be ready 
for the wearer. If this is not done by one machine, 
it certainly is by a series of machines in one estab- 
lishment. Crispin has made the last use of his last ; 
he is literally strapped ; his awl is gone, and he must 
peg away at something else. 

Until within the last twenty years all the watches 
worn in our country were of European hand make, 
mostly English and Swiss — a business in those coun- 
tries that employed thousands. But within the time 
mentioned, in Waltham, Massachusetts, and in El- 
gin, Illinois, two establishments commenced making 
machine watches, followed quite recently by some 
half dozen establishments in other places ; and now, 
in this country there is substantially no more sale for 
hand made watches. Swiss and English are alike 

2 



1 8 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

knocked out of time ; large communities in those 
countries are in great want, absolutely destitute, be- 
cause of our machine movements. The hand watch- 
maker, also, must find other employment, if he can. 

Even the graders of our towns, cities, and roads 
are displaced by machinery ; the pick and shovel, 
wielded by brawny arms, until within a few years 
were the only forces used. Now, the steam paddy 
displaces brawn ; the pick and shovel are too costly 
and too slow. In San Francisco its hills, covering 
miles of territory, have been removed by labor sav- 
ing processes. The steam paddy, controlled by two 
men, digs down and removes the hills at the rate of 
two or three scoops to the car load, and then in trains 
of a dozen or more cars are run to and dumped into 
the bays and hollows to be filled ; compelling thou- 
sands of muscular workmen with their picks and 
shovels, horses and carts, to find other employment. 

Twenty-five years ago the miner in California and 
Australia washed his gold in a pan, or in a cradle, 
into which he had placed a couple of shovelsfull of 
earth, rocking the cradle with one hand and pouring 
in water with the other. Now, the gold miner con- 
ducts the water from some high point to a favorable 
position over his placer, giving a large fall, and from 
that position in hose to the washings, where, rushing 
with irresistible power through a small nozzle, it is 
turned against the solid hills of dirt, gravel, stone, 
and cement, which it cuts down, dissolves, and 
through sluices carries miles away to a favorable 
place for dumping, leaving the gold deposited in the 
sluice. In this manner hills three and four hundred 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT T g 

feet high, of the hardness of stone, melt and disap- 
pear like a bank of snow before the Summer's sun ; 
half a dozen men, by this labor saving process, do- 
ing the work that would require an army with picks, 
shovels, and cradles only. 

In the processes for getting out the ores and ob- 
taining the precious metals from the vein rocks there 
have been corresponding changes. 

These few cases will serve to show the changes of 
a few years in the labor of production for physical 
wants. Let us see what has been the change in the 
work of producing food and clothing for the mind. 

In the days of our fathers all printing was done 
directly from the type upon hand presses. The press 
work was done by two men — one inking the type, 
and the other laying on the paper and making the 
impressions, changing work and relieving each other 
every hour. In this manner two hundred and fifty 
impressions were made in an hour, and it required 
two impressions for a small four page newspaper — 
one upon each side. Since that time in all the pro- 
cesses except type setting marvelous changes have 
been made. Stereotyping first, and then electrotyp- 
ing has been devised for the indefinite duplication 
and preservation of the matter in type form ; and the 
power press has been invented and improved to the 
degree that gives thirty thousand impressions per 
hour. The effect can best be illustrated by compar- 
ing present results with the past. 

Take the New York Tribune for the illustration. 
From that establishment is issued weekly, in the 
form of its daily, semi-weekly, and weekly issues, 



20 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

with supplements and extras, an amount of printed 
matter equal to, say, one million copies of the eight 
page Tribune. To do this work requires eighty 
compositors and proof readers, four pressmen, and 
two presses — two of Hoe's perfecting presses. To 
issue the same amount of printed matter by the pro- 
cesses in use by our fathers would require two hun- 
dred and sixty-seven presses, five hundred and thirty- 
four pressmen, and five thousand compositors and 
proof readers. Thus we see that in printing, to-day 
less than one hundred men, with machinery, do the 
work that would have required nearly six thousand 
about fifty years ago.* Here, in one newspaper 
establishment, labor saving processes have, within 
half a century, taken the work from more than five 
thousand five hundred men, keeping at work less 
than one hundred. Not yet satisfied, a further reduc- 
tion must be made of one-half the remaining com- 
positors by using type setting machines so soon as 
they are perfected. 

New York has half a score of other establishments 
which might be cited in further illustration. Boston, 
Philadelphia, Chicago, and all our larger cities have 
their illustrations. 

In this estimate no account has been taken of the 
great reductions in type and other printing materials, 
in offices and publication rooms, in editors, reporters, 
etc., caused by labor saving processes. And in the 

* Since writing this statement, in July, 1877, these presses have been so improved 
and developed as to be capable, in ten hours, of throwing off from each press, 300,000 
copies of the eight page Tribune, or 600,000 of four pages, each and all folded. It would 
have required 480 hand presses, with 960 pressmen, to have printed the same number fifty 
years ago, with no folding. This amount of printed matter from one press now, would 
have required, by the old processes, the labor of 10,000 compositors and pressmen. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 21 

farming, manufacturing, building, mining, and car- 
rying businesses, which I have here referred to, cor- 
responding relative interests have not been consid- 
ered. It must not be forgotten that wherever ma- 
chinery has been introduced as a tool or force to do 
a certain amount of work of any kind, it simply dis- 
placed the tools formerly used, which, in the aggre- 
gate, were far greater in number, and required much 
more muscular labor in the making, than the ma- 
chines which have displaced them ; y as, for instance, - 
the carts, wagons, coaches, and teams displaced by 
the locomotive and cars; the numerous hand looms 
displaced by one power loom ; the hundreds and 
thousands of hand cards and spinning wheels dis- 
placed by one carding machine and spinning jack ; 
the more than four hundred hand presses displaced 
by one power press, etc. 

The processes in the production and manufacture 
of iron and steel, of ship building, of furniture, of 
carriages — in fact of every thing produced — have 
been changed in a similar manner. Everywhere is 
machinery doing the work of muscle, and in every 
case marvelously increasing production. Can any 
one name a business which is not in this manner 
affected ? 

Mechanism has come to the help of science, largely 
increasing her power ; and destruction and butchery, 
also, may count their gains in the labor saving en- 
ginery of war. 

The changes I have described have been in pro- 
gress only within the present century ; at first they 
were little felt — the beginnings were small ; but 



22 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

from the beginning they have been gathering force 
and momentum, and now the whole world feels their 
influence — more in our country than elsewhere — 
and already, of our own country men and women 
there are three millions vainly hunting for the place 
where, "in the sweat of their face they may eat 
bread ; " with plenty all around, the workingman sees 
his wife and children naked and hungry, because he 
cannot find employment; the widow, or worse than 
widowed wife and mother, with her babes, walks the 
city's streets vainly hunting food and shelter, or sits 
upon the curbstone hugging her frozen babe to her 
chilled bosom ; work she cannot find. And multi- 
tudes of women who fortunately are not mothers of 
babes, but women, young and old, compelled not 
only to support themselves, but often, also, aged or 
infirm parents, or younger, or feeble, or sick mem- 
bers of the family, wear out a miserable existence in 
the sickening struggle to find work, and the still 
harder struggle to make the few dimes they do get 
supply them and those dependent upon them, with 
the barest necessaries of life. The destitution and 
suffering of our women is as great or greater than 
that of our men, and their numbers are not less. 
Man in his want and madness resorts to violence. 
Woman in her misery shrinks from public display, 
and dies making no sign. I do not know whether 
the estimate of three millions be too large or too 
small; it is the popular estimate. I have no means 
of arriving at the true number, and have no w r ish to 
exaggerate or belittle ; therefore I accept the popular 
estimate, being certain that the true number who are 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 23 

now suffering for want of work whereby they may 
live, is so great as to be appalling ; it is too great to 
belittle, too perilous to neglect. 

At the commencement of the present century all 
men and women, working for full fourteen and six- 
teen hours a day for the full year, could produce little 
more than enough for present consumption ; now, 
with nearly one half idle, the other moiety, with ma- 
chinery, working not more than ten hours a day, of- 
ten much less, and sometimes idle for weeks and 
months together, are able to produce not only abun- 
dantly for present consumption of all, but to accumu- 
late stocks in many important products that w r ould 
suffice for the world's consumption for months or 
years, did production entirely cease. 

And yet we are only upon the threshold of inven- 
tion ; more rapidly than ever we rush on in devising 
to still further save labor ; telephones ; duplex and 
quadruplex telegraphs ; California inventions to tele- 
graph a full page of a newspaper almost at a stroke ; 
electric motors, electric lights, and electric heats, are 
all portents of the near future, with their attendant 
labor revolutions. Having chained the lightnings to 
our service, what next ? 

The use of labor saving processes and machinery 
have thus far been mostly confined to England and a 
portion of the United States ; but there is not an in- 
dustry in any part of our country, nor in Europe, 
that is not affected by them ; there is hardly a mart, 
or a store, or a warehouse on the globe that is not 
crowded with every conceivable production. The 
Englishman and the Yankee everywhere, with jeal- 



24 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

ous rivalry, are jostling one another in the hunt for 
new markets. But now, other peoples have begun 
to adopt these new processes and machinery, and by 
their use will supply themselves with the products 
now received from abroad, and they, also, will soon 
compete for a world's market. All the European na- 
tions are introducing machinery and learning its use. 
Australia, Brazil, Peru, Chili, and Egypt, also, enter 
into the strife ; even China and Japan wheel into line, 
and are learning the use of railroads and labor saving 
machinery. The inevitable result will be that every 
nation, Christian and pagan, will produce and manu- 
facture for itself, subject only to the conditions of cli- 
mate and soil. And in every country where labor 
saving machinery is adopted — and where will it not 
be used — there will follow a displacement of manual 
labor like that in our own country. 

Viewing the matter in the light of the inevitable, 
who will attempt to predict what muscular labor will 
be left for man at the close of the next fifty years, or 
the limit of the power of production. But the power 
of consumption will still remain the same ; then, as 
now, and as a hundred years ago, man will require 
and can consume but so many ounces of food per 
day, and so much clothing, and so much feeding of 
the mind, and still can inhabit only one dwelling at a 
time. Vary the mode or variety of our consumption 
as we may, and extend it to meet the great and 
increasingly varied products of our civilization, as 
compared with our power of production it is confined 
within very narrow limits. 

For the thousands of years that man has existed 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 25 

upon this earth, down to within the present century, 
all work has been performed without the aid of labor 
saving processes or machinery. Great nations have 
risen and fallen, and stupendous works have been 
achieved, some of which, hoary with the age of thou- 
sands of years, all the work of bone and muscle, still 
exist, as if to laugh to scorn the greatest works of the 
later centuries. During all this time there was work 
for all — too much for many. Man has been fed and 
clothed, some luxuriously, others scantily ; but no 
doubt there was abundance for all, if none were 
wasted. But now, in this nineteenth century, labor 
saving processes have been brought into use whereby 
one man, by the aid of these processes, can do more 
than could a score at any time before this century ; 
and suddenly we find that the world is gorged with 
products, and millions of men are vainly hunting for 
the opportunity to pay the penalty for having eaten 
of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. 

If w r e will but eat a little more of the fruit of this 
same tree, we will find that this thing, which now op- 
erates as a great evil, is really the means whereby 
man will reach his greatest earthly good ; that the 
development of his mental powers, whereby he ob- 
tains control of the forces of nature, and compels 
these forces to relieve him of his great physical la- 
bors, should and will prove a blessing. 

The scarcity of money, or other financial condi- 
tions, is the cause commonly assigned for all our la- 
bor difficulties ; probably from the fact that mankind 
in general being devout and blind worshipers of the 
golden calf, in it alone they find the source of all 



26 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

power for good or evil, as does the heathen in his fet- 
ish, or the moon worshiper in the moon. This cer- 
tainly is convenient, for it saves all such from the 
trouble and pain of thought, and the necessity of 
searching from effect out to cause. The cause of our 
labor difficulties lies too deep for money to reach, 
though money has its uses, by no means insignificant. 

Money is purely the product of legislation — an 
evidence of credit — a representative of value. By 
an Act of Congress the country may be flooded with 
money, or it may be drained. But whether there 
be much or little money, mankind must be fed and 
clothed. Money alone will do neither the one nor 
the other ; it does not affect the laws of production 
and consumption. Money produces nothing ; it con- 
sumes nothing. It is the creature of labor, and with- 
out labor it can not exist. But as a representative of 
value it facilitates the exchange of products — the 
transactions of trade; in that way only does it bear 
upon this question. 

Never was money offered at lower rates than at 
the present time ; and never before was there so 
much labor in the market without purchasers. The 
reason is, that the labor offered is too slow, too cost- 
ly; other labor, that of machinery, more effective, 
more rapid, more productive, takes its place, and 
muscle is displaced ; and if there were ten times the 
money there is now, or not half as much, it could not 
alter the case. 

When all were employed and in receipt of good 
wages, all classes prospered ; for the simple reason 
that abundance was produced, and all was consumed. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 27 

Every one was well fed, well clothed, and even leis- 
ure and luxury were attainable. The laborer, the 
trader, the speculator, and gambler, all — whether 
producer or consumer, the industrious bee or the 
drone — shared in the general prosperity, and our 
country stepped onward in the march of progress 
with strides that were marvelous. Then it was that 
the English manufacturer, also, with his French 
neighbor, found among our millions their Golconda ; 
our thriving working classes were their best custom- 
ers, and enriched them.* At home, manufactures of 
every kind, railroads and shipping, schools and col- 
leges, public and private institutions, towns, cities, 
and States, marking our advance in comfort, wealth, 
and civilization, sprang into existence as by the touch 
of magic. All the little rills and streams were full, 
pouring their miniature torrents into the larger 
streams, and all flowing grandly onward to our great 
ocean of wealth. 

Now, all is changed ; the laborer is idle in great 
part, receiving no wages ; or when in receipt of 
wages, not more than enough to sustain a bare exist- 
ence ; never enough for real comfort, and luxuries 
are beyond his utmost flights of fancy. Notwith- 

* After England emerged from the Napoleonic wars, in that country there was gen- 
eral stagnation of business and the greatest distress ; there was but little production, and 
consequently little employment ; pauperism and bankruptcy became general. This con- 
tinued until after 1S20, when a large industry was gradually created in manufacturing for 
the market of the United States. This industry was rapidly developed, and the market 
was assiduously fostered by all the means in which the English producer is so skilled, 
until the whole energy of that country was fully employed in the production of textile 
fabrics, iron and its manufactures, etc., finding their great market with us. By means of 
this manutacturing industry that people emerged from pauperism and bankruptcy to com- 
parative prosperity, and the manufacturer rose to a condition of wealth, power, and des- 
potism rivalling that of the great landowners, the successors of the lawiess feudal barons. 



2 8 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

standing machinery and labor saving processes are 
producing everything so abundantly and cheaply, all 
producers, manufacturers especially, and tradesmen, 
complain that there is no trade — few or no purchas- 
ers for their productions — unremunerative prices — 
and in distress all are crying out ; with money, mil- 
lions of it, at one-and-a-half on call, and four and 
five per cent, per annum, but no takers. 

Now, the cry is going up from every quarter of the 
failures of manufacturers and tradesmen, numbered 
by thousands quarterly, with constantly accelerating 
rapidity; the first half of 1877, as reported, gives 
4,749 commercial failures, being at the rate of 9,498 
yearly ; funds are drawn from savings institutions, 
and they close their doors ; banks and corporations 
of every kind struggling for existence, and dying by 
hundreds ; hardly a railroad paying more than ex- 
penses, and many much less ; steamers of all kinds 
and sailing vessels lying idle at our wharves — (as I 
write, a report is published that in the harbor of New 
York alone 120,000 tons of shipping are vainly seek- 
ing freight;) and nearly two-thirds of our blast fur- 
naces are idle — the exact proportion being 443 out 
of a total number of 702. All is stagnation ; disaster 
follows disaster ; everything tending rapidly from 
bad to worse. All share in the general misfortune — 
none escape. 

Well, what else can we expect ? All these more 

noted torrents and streams of wealth were created 

and fed by the million from the wages of their work ; 

^the million feeders having dried up, the torrents and 

streams run low, and soon will cease all motion, leav- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 2 g 

ing but an occasional stagnant pool. Is there one so 
blind that he cannot see with this beginning where 
must be the ending ? 

Who does not know that the great Father of Wa- 
ters finds its sources far up in the Rocky Mountains 
and the Alleghanies, in the millions of little springs 
and streams hidden out of sight of the dweller upon 
the banks of the mighty river, near its mouth. But 
without these little springs and streams there would 
be no mighty river. And without the wages of the 
millions of laborers there can be no ocean of wealth. 

From every direction come the wild inquiries, 
What is the matter ? When will it end ? 

It will end when the cause is ended ; not before. 

The matter is easily told; it is this. The mass of 
mankind, the millions, are the great consumers, no 
matter who or what are the producers. The only 
way in which the millions can obtain any production 
to consume is to work for it. Without work they 
can not obtain or consume. No work, no wages; 
and the wage of the millions is the exact measure of 
their purchasing power — aye, and of their consum- 
ing power, also. When the millions are in comfort- 
able circumstances, consumption is developed to the 
fullest extent, and every class of trade thrives ; when 
the millions are in want, consumption falls to its low- 
est point, and no class can escape distress. These 
truisms need no proof; but the past and present 
condition of our country gives abundant evidence. 
Trade, properly understood, is nothing more nor less 
than carrying from the producer to the consumer — 
or, if you please, the exchange or barter between the 



30 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



two ; and in exact proportion to the amount of con- 
sumption is the amount of trade. Now, with millions 
out of employment, and consequently without wages ; 
with other millions working only at times ; and all 
who do work being at wages reduced to the lowest 
living point, and still being ground lower and lower 
in their wages, necessarily the millions have lost, or 
are fast losing, their purchasing power, and produc- 
ers are without consumers ; consequently there is no 
trade. The process now so freely used of playing 
the unemployed starving millions against those in 
employment, is a sure way of forcing lower wages, 
that will end in nothing short of exhaustion. This 
process, like the mills of the gods, grinds slow, but 
exceedingly fine. Where this process grinds is a 
poor place for trade, but a good place for blind vio- 
lence growing out of haggard want. When the mil- 
lions fail in their work, which brings wages, the little 
rills w r hich go to make up the ocean of wealth dries 
up ; the rivers cease to flow, and all become poor to- 
gether — J:he food producer has small sale for his 
food, and at low prices ; the manufacturer has no de- 
mand for his products ; the railroad has little to car- 
ry ; and the trader has no trade — because the mil- 
lions can not buy — can only go naked and starve. 

How, then, do we expect that machinery will con- 
sume the products of its labor ? Will it wear the 
clothes it makes ? Will it eat the food it grows ? 
Will it consume anything more than the fuel that 
feeds it, and the oil and waste that makes it run 
smooth ? If not, what will ? The million will not, 
for the million have no work, and no means to ac- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 3I 

quire for consumption. The market of the million, 
the one great market, being closed, production must 
stop, and then machinery will have no use for even 
fuel, or oil, or waste. 

Still, with our utmost power we crowd in machine- 
ry, and crowd out muscle. 

Do you ask, Is there no remedy ? No road out of 
these difficulties ? 

Aye, there is a remedy sure and simple; a road 
neither difficult to find nor hard to travel. Our own 
experience — the recollection of every middle aged 
man and woman in our land — proves to a demon- 
stration where and how the remedy is to be found. 
That which once gave us prosperity will give it 
again. Once more let every workingman share in the 
work to be done, at living wages ; once more allow to 
the producer that share of his own productions, or its 
equivalent, which will allow him to live in comfort, 
and get a taste of the luxuries and leisure of life, and 
the million will again become the great consumers of 
every product ; the patrons of every new movement 
in national progress — the feeders of every stream of 
wealth. Here is the only remedy — the only road 
out of this Slough of Despond. No other remedy 
can reach and remove the root of the disease ; with- 
out a radical cure there can be no permanent health. 
The bounteous bosom of good Mother Earth will 
yield abundantly to all her children, if we will have 
it so ; but the unformulated condition of that abun- 
dance is, that all shall work, with no idlers. It will 
now take no greater percentage of the general pro- 
duct to meet all the wants of the million than it did 



32 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

in the days of our greatest prosperity, and there will 
necessarily be absorbed the same proportion by the 
nonproducer and the drone. Then again prosperity 
will bless all alike ; and again our country will lead 
all the nations of the earth in the march of general 
progress. 

True, the workingman and the producer, by the 
aid of machinery and labor saving processes, can do 
all the work and labor required in much less time 
than heretofore, and with a great saving of muscular 
exertion. That is of minor consequence. The mat- 
ter of great consequence is not whether man is em- 
ployed ten hours or two. The great matter is, that 
every man shall have the right and opportunity to 
work, and that the work he does shall yield sufficient 
to keep him, and those dependent upon him, in com- 
fort. If it took fourteen and sixteen hours a day 
heretofore, without machinery, and now, with ma- 
chinery, it requires but four or six hours to produce 
the required amount for the liberal consumption of 
all, so much the better for the laborer, and for the 
general welfare ; for it gives the laborer and producer 
greater opportunities to be educated up to the point 
of appreciating the innumerable new products of pro- 
gressive civilization, and their consequent consump- 
tion — thus continually widening and extending the 
market of the million. 

But because the workingman can, with the aid of 
machinery, a device of his own creation, in a given 
time produce a largely increased amount above what 
he could formerly produce, is no reason why he 
should have a much less share of the production, or 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 33 

no share at all — it is no reason why he should suffer 
a before unknown distress ; but, on the contrary, it is 
the best of reasons why he should be a liberal sharer 
in the increased comforts, and a full partaker of the 
benefits. If he should not, then who should ? The 
thing is too evident to admit of discussion. 

The use of machinery to the disfilace?nent of mus- 
cle is just what causes our present difficulties. But 
the use of machinery in assisting muscle in produc- 
tion ; in reducing muscular exhaustion ; in obtaining 
the greatest possible development of our material re- 
sources, and in the saving of time, is where the 
greatest good is to be obtained. Since I first learned 
the use of stick and rule there has been a reduction 
in the hours of labor of quite six hours. Then, four- 
teen and sixteen hours per day was the common rule ; 
now, it is eight or ten. The reduction has been in 
every way a benefit to all ; and whatever additional 
reduction may be necessary to meet the changing 
conditions of production and consumption will be 
sure to work its own good. But whatever the saving 
of time may be, be it more or less, the whole benefit 
will not be confined to the laborer ; the nonlaborer is 
sure to get his share. 

The great point is, that laborers and producers 
shall all have work, and always at living wages, that 
both may consume to their fullest capacity. Though 
at the best there is but a narrow limit to our power 
of consumption, yet the margin between a want of 
the simple necessaries of life, upon one side, and an 
abundance of all the comforts, not to say luxuries, 
that go to make up a living that is neither wasteful 
3 



34 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



nor extravagant, upon the other side, is so great as 
to provide for a consumption that will necessitate a 
production and trade far greater than any we have 
yet seen. It is within this margin that the elements 
of a people's greatest prosperity are to be found. It 
is this margin of consumption at home that must be 
stimulated in order to secure the greatest good of all, 
with opportunities for the great fortunes of the few. 

It is at the very time when labor receives its high- 
est rewards, and is able to live most liberally, that 
capital makes its greatest gains. I here cite only 
two cases to illustrate a universal principle : first, the 
manufacture of railroad iron. 

The following table, with the last column omitted, 
has been used to show the spoliation of society by 
labor — I use it for other purposes. As used here, 
the figures are corrected in the office of the American 
Iron and Steel Association, Philadelphia, and are for 
best quality of rails, made from Pennsylvania ores, 
with anthracite coal, and laid dow r n in Philadelphia. 
The items are from a Pennsylvania furnace. 

Table showing the -payments to capital and labor in 
the production of Iron Rails at three periods. 



Standard iron rails, ton, 
Ore, per ton of pig iron, 

Coal, 

Labor, 



1859^ 


i860. 

$48 00 
7 45 
3 49 
1 87 


1S61. 


1871. 


1872. 


1873- 


$49 37 
7 08 
3 26 
1 82 


$42 37 
7 35 
3 26 
1 97 


$70 37 
12 67 
8 59 

3 54 


$85 12 
13 64 
7 28 
4 69 


$76 66 

14 87 

7 45 

5 11 



$37 50 
7 69 
4 93 
2 02 



Here we see that in the production of iron rails, 
during the two periods of our great labor depression 
— 1857-61 and the present — while labor received 



* For the first six months only of 1877. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 35 

less than two dollars per ton, capital obtained nearly 
thirty-four dollars ; and in the period when labor was 
most largely rewarded, it received less than four and 
one-half dollars per ton where capital obtained more 
than fifty-two and one-half dollars. Evidently, if 
there was spoliation in the years of our prosperity, it 
was not by labor. But hard w r ords will not help the 
argument. This much the foregoing table demon- 
strates, that w r hen labor was best paid, capital made 
its greatest gains ; and then it was that the railroads 
paid the best dividends and endured the most water, 
and other plundering operations, but not by labor. 
Equally groundless will be found most other charges 
of spoliation by labor, w r hen carefully analyzed. 

And so, also, in our textile manufactures. In 1861 
print cloths were sold at 4^ cents per yard ; in Sep- 
tember, 1877, at 3|; whilst in June and October, 
1872, they were quoted at 8 cents, with cotton in 
those three periods at nearly the same quotations. 
This, also, shows that at the time when the highest 
wages w r ere paid capital made its greatest gains, and 
we came the nearest to universal prosperity. The 
fact whether "the machinery and muscle employed in 
these productions was engaged two or twenty hours 
per day does not and can not affect the question. 
It is the close consumption or nonconsumption of the 
amount produced, be it large or small, which affects 
the questions of wages, and of profit or loss, and not 
the time required in producing, whether by night or 
day, or long or short ; and the greater the amount of 
production, with consequent consumption, the better. 
The point demonstrated in the cost of production of 



36 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

these two great manufactures is, that at the time 
when labor was most generally employed, received 
its highest wages, and the employed had the greatest 
ability to acquire and consume, capital made its 
greatest gains — the prosperity of the million created 
the affluence of the few. 

I am disgusted with the parrot cry that the work- 
ingman must learn to live cheaper, must economize, 
must consume less ; which means that less must be 
produced, less consumed, with less trade, and that all 
sources of prosperity must be dried up, and niggardly 
want be the lot of all. I insist that the workingman 
must learn to live better, must consume more, and 
partake of all the bounties of Mother Earth, that 
production may be fully developed ; that consump- 
tion may keep pace with production, and that trade 
may thrive, to the end that all may prosper. In the 
processes, the manipulations, the traffic, between the 
producer and the ultimate consumer, lies the mine 
from which all capital is gathered. Without excep- 
tion all, banker, broker, and barrister, clergyman, 
physician, and official, manufacturer, trader, specu- 
lator, and gambler, from that mine gather in their 
honest gains or spoils. It is the million, those who 
are the great consumers, the great body of working 
people that, by consuming, pay all bills and settle all 
accounts, and not the few boastful capitalists. And 
as is the workingman's ability to consume liberally, 
to distribute freely, so is the opportunity for profit to 
all classes. The workingman should avoid all waste 
and extravagance — all unnecessary expense ; he 
should save, and make provision for the future ; but 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 37 

this saving and provision should not be at the cost of 
privation and suffering. 

The very safety of society, the perpetuation of our 
institutions, depends upon the condition of the work- 
ingmen of our country, who form the great mass of 
our population. It is hardly necessary for me to re- 
peat that poverty contains the germ of every vice and 
danger, and that prosperity is the basis of all real ad- 
vancement. We may as well recognize and act upon 
the fact that there can be no real prosperity with one 
half of our people while the other half is in destitu- 
tion. If we do not, that fact, sooner or later, in some 
deplorable form, will make itself felt with a force 
that will compare with the late railroad strikes as the 
whirlwind compares with the summer zephyr. Cause 
and effect can not be separated. 

So long as a large percentage of our people are 
compelled to a daily toil consuming all of daylight, 
and a portion of the night, to earn sufficient to obtain 
the most scanty food, with shelter in a hovel, or per- 
haps one or more rooms in a crowded tenement 
house, without carpet, curtain, or decent bed, cloth- 
ing, or furniture ; or, as is frequently the case, con- 
fined to one wretched room, with no vestige of furni- 
ture, or, may be, of food or fuel ; or, to the shame 
and disgrace of our civilization which makes it possi- 
ble, because of poverty and want, to drive two or 
more families, young and old of both sexes, to herd 
like cattle in one room ; or where millions of able 
bodied men and women are idle, discontented, and 
wretched, and tens of thousands of homeless men and 
women are wandering all over the face of our coun- 



38 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

try, rilling our highways and byways, and begging 
food and clothing from door to door, plundering or 
working as occasion offers, and rapidly developing 
into a great criminal class, there can be no possible 
hope of useful or moral education or advancement. 
It is in these very elements that lie the greatest perils 
to our whole social and political structure ; these ele- 
ments are rapidly gaining in number and force, and 
our perils are proportionately increasing. 

The remedy for this wretchedness is work, with 
wages that will permit each family to have a separate 
home, and a decent one, and make it possible for the 
home to be made attractive, with time for the heads 
of the family to become acquainted with their chil- 
dren, and to teach them to be decent. Then educa- 
tion and advancement become possible ; then the 
power of knowing what is the true meaning of civili- 
zation, and of appreciating its great advantages, may 
be developed, and the desire of acquiring its comforts 
and refinements may be created, developing a con- 
sumption which will compel a production and trade 
many times greater than we have yet seen, with a 
radical cure of all those social crimes and evils which 
grow directly out of idleness and poverty. The 
foundation, the very first condition of social and 
moral advancement is, material prosperity. Here is 
an opening for missionary labor, if not as wide, cer- 
tainly as necessitous, as can be found in Asia or Af- 
rica ; and it is among our next door neighbors. 

Throwing aside all sentiments of kindness, all in- 
terest in our common humanity, in the lowest and 
most degrading sentiment of the purest selfishness, 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 39 

of simple greed, is to be found the strongest and most 
potent arguments for the constant employment of all 
who will do a share of the common work, and the 
payment of the highest wages. No sensible person 
can hope to make money where there is no money in 
circulation among the masses ; no one will seek for 
water at a dry fountain ; only the full fountain may 
be drawn from. It is not among paupers and tramps 
that railroads find a profitable business ; beggars do 
not build churches nor support a ministry ; manufac- 
turers cannot find a market in a starving community ; 
only a fool will try to do business in the midst of gen- 
eral destitution. It is only where the masses are 
prosperous that business thrives ; and once having a 
place where the masses are prosperous, the wise will 
use every possible means to preserve its prosperity ; 
only fools will wantonly destroy it. The wise man 
having a goose laying him golden eggs, will take the 
best of care of that goose — give it the best of past- 
ure, the purest of water, and constant watchfulness. 
The fool will kill it, cut it open, and find the fool's 
reward. Labor is our golden goose. 

Labor is the only means of production ; production 
is the only source of wealth, and the laboring mil- 
lions must ever be the great consumers. The trader 
finds his profits in the traffic between the producer 
and consumer ; all who in any manner assist in either 
production, distribution, or consumption, are enriched 
in the operation. Labor lies at the foundation of all 
prosperity, and its proper remuneration is the guar- 
antee of social order. Labor protected, all else is 
safe. It is the one condition of man's existence. 



40 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

Now, let us see some of the cost of idleness. 

Three millions are out of employment ; we will es- 
timate the wages of each, if employed, at two dollars 
a day ; five years ago it would have been at least one 
half more. But at two dollars a day the wages of 
these three millions would amount to six million dol- 
lars a day, or one hundred and fifty-six millions a 
month, or one thousand eight hundred and seventy- 
eight million dollars a year lost to production, to 
trade, to consumption of the products of labor. But 
this is not all the loss ; add to it the amount lost in 
the reduction of the wages of those still employed, 
and you will quite double the amount. But the 
amount, in round numbers, of two thousand millions 
of dollars lost by the idleness alone of the unem- 
ployed, again added to our trade, to the consumption 
of our products, will once more set in motion every 
class of manufacturing industry ; make active all the 
now stagnant avenues of trade ; and again will bur- 
den our railroads and shipping with freight and 
travel. It will bring contentment to the land, and 
give us what bayonets and police clubs can not give 
— " peace and plenty." 

This immense amount lost through idleness is just 
what makes the difference between prosperity and 
adversity. Now, add to this amount the large reduc- 
tion that has already been made in wages where still 
paid, and you change prosperity to affluence. 

This loss has been going on, to some extent, for 
years — fully ten or more. But multiply the amount 
thus lost in one year by say three only, and then 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. ^ 

wonder, not that we are so poor, but that we have 
endured so well. 

The great thing to be guarded against in the future 
is the too great use of our productive power, and con- 
sequent overproduction and inability to consume the 
products, with recurring stagnation. 

The only way to attain the desired object of giving 
employment to all, making it steady and continuous, 
and at the same time keeping production upon an 
even scale with consumption is, to so reduce the time 
in which machinery and muscle is employed, as to 
compel the use of such an additional amount of ma- 
chinery as will necessitate the employment of all our 
muscle and intelligence to meet the demands of con- 
sumption. This means that more mills and manu- 
factories of every kind will be built, and furnished, 
and worked by the present unemployed, until all are 
employed ; and that the daily time for the employ- 
ment of all working people and machinery, whether 
in the factory, the mine, the machine shop, or on the 
railroad, or wherever else employed, will be so re- 
duced and regulated as to prevent a greater produc- 
tion than will find a ready consumption. 

Then the millions of present nonconsumers will 
become consumers, increasing their consumption as 
their prosperity increases, until the general consump- 
tion is developed to an extent that at the present time 
would be deemed incredible. There can be no doubt 
that the increased consumption that would be devel- 
oped by our present population, if all were employed 
at good living wages, would be more than twice, 
probably three times as great as at the present time ; 



42 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

thereby compelling a largely increased production, 
with corresponding trade and traffic of every nature, 
with general contentment and security, growing out 
of general prosperity. 

I well know this will increase the cost of produc- 
tion, and enhance the value of everything ; but at the 
same time it will give the producer and the laborer 
the means to acquire and consume, which they have 
not under present conditions. Capital will no longer 
feed upon and consume itself, but will reach out into 
new businesses, and again fatten upon the wages of 
the million. 

It requires no argument to prove the principle that 
the measure of a nation's prosperity is not products at 
low cost, but the ability of all to buy and consume at 
remunerative prices. The principle is so self evident 
that its mere statement is sufficient ; yet the experi- 
ence of our country within the last twenty-five years 
demonstrates its correctness. 

It is also certain that the payment of hundreds of 
millions of dollars annually to foreign countries to 
produce for our consumption that which we might 
produce at home, will not feed or clothe our suffering 
millions. 

To say that the necessary steps cannot be taken 
upon the road and in the manner pointed out, to 
make such an adjustment as will extricate us from 
our labor difficulties, and place us again upon the 
highway of prosperity, is to confess to a degree of 
imbecility and folly that unfits us for either civil or 
social liberty. One half of the intelligence, labor, 
and legislation expended to devise ways and means 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 43 

to protect labor, secure to it good wages, and guard 
against overproduction, that has been and is now 
expended upon tariffs and foreign trade, will build up 
a home market worth more than all the other markets 
of the world. But tariffs and foreign trade should 
not be neglected. 

Much is said and written about what should or 
should not constitute a day's work — the number of 
hours. Of necessity this point must be governed by 
the conditions which obtain in the various periods 
and demands for production to meet man's necessities 
and comforts. When man was dependent upon his 
own muscle and the use of the most crude tools or 
implements in the production of food, clothing, and 
shelter, necessarily the operations were slow and toil- 
some, requiring, in those parts of the earth subject to 
long seasons of alternate heat and cold, almost con- 
stant, unresting labor. Thus we find that, previous 
to the present century, our ancestry, both young and 
old, were compelled to a daily toil often equal to and 
exceeding eighteen hours a day. Many now living 
can remember when fifteen and sixteen hours a day 
were deemed a regular day's work, and none were 
idle. But, as tools were improved and facilities were 
increased, these extreme hours were relaxed and 
some leisure was found, greatly to the advantage of 
all. The introduction of new forces — horsepowers, 
waterpowers, etc. — still further relaxed the toil and 
added to comfort and advancement. 

With the advent of steam power and machinery by 
common consent the hours of labor were soon reduced 
to twelve. Then commenced the rapid development 



44 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



of the great revolution in all our methods of produc- 
tion which has culminated in universal distress, for 
the simple reason that man, after reducing his hours 
of labor to ten a day, has there ceased to further mod- 
ify and regulate his daity hours of work to meet his 
increased and increasing powers of production. With 
a power of production increased tenfold by the use 
of machinery, he still persists in working nearly as 
many hours as were worked twenty and thirty years 
ago, with the inevitable result of producing vastly 
more than can be consumed, or than can find a mar- 
ket. This necessarily results in displacing a very 
large percentage of muscular labor, for the simple 
reason that it is not required in producing all that 
can be marketed and consumed. This displacement 
of muscular labor, however great it may be, to that 
extent weakens the market, by cutting off the wages 
of labor ; this reacts upon the demand for products, 
causes a further displacement of muscle, and thus 
acts and reacts until the work of selfdestruction is 
completed. 

Our ancestry worked eighteen hours a day because 
that time was necessary to supply their wants ; then 
as facilities to produce the required supply increased, 
the hours of toil were lessened, and always to the 
general benefit, until mankind ceased to produce 
every one for himself, and capital stepped in to con- 
trol labor in production by machinery, when the les- 
sening of worktime to meet the increased power of 
production ceased, and we now find ourselves utterly 
demoralized and in the greatest distress. If it re- 
quired, without machinery, fifteen or sixteen hours a 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 



45 



day to supply man's wants, and now, with machinery, 
it requires but five or six hours, we must come down 
to the five or six ; and if in the future it should re- 
quire but two or three, or more or less, then the two 
or three hours, or whatever the necessary time may 
be, must be adopted. Any time that will permit, or 
make it possible, for a portion of the workpeople to 
do all the work that is to be done, leaving the other 
portion idle, is too long ; and whatever time is work- 
ed that will not enable all, by working, to provide for 
all, is too short. By no other standard can the work- 
time be measured than the necessity for such time as 
will enable all, in working, to achieve the production 
that will meet the requirements of all. 

The matter is simply this : invention has developed 
the power of production by machinery until it has 
become practically illimitable, whilst man's demands 
for the necessaries, comforts, and developments of 
life have in no corresponding degree increased. It 
is the unregulated, unrestricted use of this illimitable 
power that has thrown the many into idleness, and 
consequent demoralization of all interests. How can 
these things be harmonized? This is the problem. 

The talk of "supply and demand," whatever that 
may mean, being the regulator that will regulate our 
industrial difficulties, is without a grain of sense. 
For years there has been a constantly increasing de- 
mand, by the idle, for work, with a constantly les- 
sening supply ; and for years there has been a con- 
stantly increasing supply of products with constantly 
lessening demand. " Supply and demand" is the talk 
of parrots — in this relation meaningless. 



4 6 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 



ANOTHER VIEW. 



The Labor Problem presents many points of view 
from which it may be examined ; but view it from 
whatever point may be chosen, if the industrial facts 
already shown to exist, are recognized as factors of 
importance, it will be seen that every indication 
points to one solution, and one only. 

In this other view, based upon the facts already 
proven, and which are indisputable, I propose to dis- 
cuss the problem in its general commercial aspects. 
In doing so I shall again take up a few of the points 
already touched upon, presenting new and forcible 
considerations, and necessarily repeating a few of 
the considerations connected with this phase of the 
argument. 

Life is filled with problems ; every people and 
every age have their peculiar problems. The greater 
part of these problems are worked out without a 
thought of their importance, or it may be, of their 
existence. But in this age is presented before us a 
problem which demands the most earnest thought, 
and is not to be satisfactorily solved by indifference, 
or relegation to the accidents of chance, if there is 
any such thing as chance. This problem demands 
the best judgment of our intellects, and the quickest 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 47 

action of our wills, and not the trifling of political 
jugglery. 

Let me say that I do not believe that our industrial 
difficulties find their source in the purposes or designs 
of any class or portion of our people. The time ha:s 
passed when the great masses will knowingly submit 
to any deliberate wrong from the few, no matter who 
they may be ; and then no class escapes injury from 
the present condition of things. Whatever is the 
cause of the difficulty, we are all parties to it, either 
from habit or ignorance. 

We will begin our inquiry by briefly reviewing the 
conditions of our industries within the recollection of 
many of us. Thirty years ago there was employ- 
ment for all who would work ; railroads, mills, and 
factories were being built ; machinery of every kind 
was being invented and applied to the production of 
all the necessaries of life, and in every direction 
prosperity and progress were developed. This de- 
velopment markedly increased until 1857, when one 
of those periods called panics occurred, followed by 
general distress. Panic is a word that explains noth- 
ing in this connection. The facts of that period 
were, that we had been for years manufacturing and 
producing beyond our power to consume, and were 
receiving from England, and other foreign countries, 
large amounts of their products, and adding these 
foreign products to our own surplus, piling up the 
two together until we could carry no more, when 
sudden paralysis seized upon everything, and pro- 
duction at home ceased in great part. Thousands 
were thrown out of employment, receiving no wages, 



4 8 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



and ceased to be purchasers and consumers. The 
trader could not sell his goods ; the manufacturer 
could not sell his fabrics ; the capitalist could not col- 
lect his loans. Like a row of bricks standing upon 
end, the first fell against the second, and that against 
the next, and so on until all were down. This par- 
alyzation continued and increased in severity until 
1861, when great distress was upon both people and 
government. Our manufacturers, merchants, and 
producers were overloaded with products, multitudes 
being idle and the government almost bankrupt. 

In the Spring of 1861, in the midst of this great 
distress, the war of the rebellion was commenced. 

A first call was made for seventy-five thousand 
men ; then three hundred thousand more, and again 
other calls, till more than a million of men had been 
drawn from the producing avocations of the north, 
ceasing all production, to become, not simply con- 
sumers, but organized and drilled destroyers, in the 
employ of the government, for the sole purpose, not 
of j^rtfduction, but of ^destruction. For this purpose 
they were armed with all the labor saving processes 
and machinery that could be devised to make their 
destruction sudden and effective. This million of 
consumers and destroyers were not long in consum- 
ing the stock on hand at the opening of the war, and 
for more than three years taxed to the utmost the 
power of our country to produce sufficient to meet 
their consumption and destruction. In this struggle 
of production to meet the demands for the legitimate 
consumption of our armies of the north, and the de- 
struction for which they were gathered together, as 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 49 

also the destruction inflicted upon us by the armies 
of the enemy, the use of labor saving processes and 
machinery was stimulated to the utmost possible ex- 
tent, with an accelerated development and force that 
was astonishing ; and the building of railroads for 
the transportation of products and war material went 
on at the rate of thousands of miles per annum. 

The close of the war found all branches of business 
active, all prosperous, with a producing capacity 
much greater than before the w r ar, fully capable of 
meeting the greatest demands of the hosts engaged 
in the work of destruction, and still increasing that 
capacity at an enormous ratio. Suddenly, with no 
preparation or delay, the one million of men em- 
ployed by government to destroy, were discharged, 
and immediately became producers, joining their en- 
ergies in adding to a production already far in excess 
of all legitimate and peaceful consumption. With 
the accession of this huge army returned from the 
work of instruction to that again of ^r<?duction, with 
the addition of all available machinery, worked to its 
fullest capacity, the work of production, with con- 
stantly increasing momentum, was pushed forward 
long after all demand had ceased, and until, from 
sheer force of its own weight, the operation again 
broke down, and the workingmen, in armies greater 
than in the war of the rebellion, have again ceased 
to be producers, are idle, without the means to pur- 
chase and consume, and again the paralyzation and 
distress of 1857 to 1861 is repeated, with an intensity 
truly alarming. 

Why was it that our period of prosperity, before 
4 



5° 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



1857, being the time when we were making our first 
great use of machinery and labor saving processes, 
as productive forces in conjunction with muscle, and 
beginning to largely increase our production of all 
the necessaries of life ; and the building and use of 
railroads and steam vessels were being largely devel- 
oped; and the electric telegraph was invented and 
brought into common use, and our general power of 
production was being so greatly multiplied, that in 
1857 we should suddenly find ourselves overloaded 
with everything, with multitudes out of employment, 
with no trade, but general embarrassment, and dis- 
tress for all ? 

Why was it that this state of things should con- 
tinue, with increasing severity, until after the opening 
of the war of the rebellion, in 1861, and that within 
two years after the opening of that war, and after a 
million of men had been taken from the producing 
classes of the north, and made destroyers, that pros- 
perity should suddenly return to us ; that every man 
should have work, with good wages ; that during the 
last two years of that terrible war our country in the 
north should prosper as it never prospered before ; 
that railroads, and manufactories, and machinery of 
all kinds should be built and used as never before, 
with good markets, great trade, high prices, and 
good wages for all ? 

And, again, why was it that after the war had 
closed amid such general prosperity, returning its 
million of destroyers to again take up the arts of 
peace and production, eight short years should again 
find us overwhelmed with productions, all business 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 51 

again paralyzed, with abundance of everything, and 
yet with millions of idle, half naked, hungry, starv- 
ing men and women ? 

Why was it that within the last forty years the two 
periods of our great industrial prosperity have ended 
in distress and disaster to every interest, and that 
four years of fratricidal war, of tremendous propor- 
tions, should not only have broken the first period of 
our adversity, but have brought upon our people ten 
years of such astonishing prosperity that some of its 
evidences will last for ages ? 

The correct answer to these two questions will fur- 
nish the key for the solution of our whole Industrial 
and Commercial Problem. 

The first question, Why have our two periods of 
great industrial prosperity, and development of new 
industrial forces, ended in general paralysis and dis- 
aster, with idleness and want for millions of our peo- 
ple ? we will now consider. 

There have been answers innumerable ; one says 
one thing, and another some other thing, but no one 
attempts to give the evidence upon which the judg- 
ment is founded, and all end in the declaration that 
we must live cheaper. Abandon luxuries, live in 
cheaper houses, use poorer furniture, do without car- 
pets and curtains, wear less, eat less, even to being 
content with bread and water, come from the lips and 
pens of our political economists of every name and 
degree. This is the end, the ultimation of their 
Christian civilization ; which, plainly stated, means 
that we must be content with, and even court, pov- 



52 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

erty and wretchedness. A most lame and impotent 
conclusion. 

On pages 25 and 26 I have already stated the only 
bearing which money has upon this question. The 
reason of our labor difficulties must be found in some 
other direction ; and when found, the evidence to 
prove it to be the true reason will be abundant. 
Here I will repeat, with greater distinctness, the real 
source of all our troubles. 

The immediate, direct, and great cause of our la- 
bor difficulties is, the radical change, the absolute 
revolution, that has already been made, and is still 
making, in all our methods of production, in every 
producing industry, vastly multiplying our power of 
production, with no corresponding increase in our 
power of consumption, with the total neglect of all 
effort to meet this changed condition of production ; 
or, more specifically, because within the present cen- 
tury what are called labor saving processes and ma- 
chinery have, to a very great and rapidly increasing 
extent, in this country and in England, supplanted 
manual labor and its slow and laborious processes of 
production. The same being true, for a less time 
and to a less extent, in Germany and other European 
countries. 

I have just said that when the true cause is found, 
the evidence to prove it will be abundant, and in this 
essay, from page 10 to 25, such evidence will be 
found, covering every class of production. 

Here is evidence in abundance proving that ma- 
chinery and labor saving processes have developed a 
power of production vastly greater than that of our 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 



53 



fathers, and that uniformly, as machinery and labor 
saving processes have been applied to the arts of pro- 
duction, manual or muscular labor has been dis- 
placed, or dispensed with, until machinery and labor 
saving processes are now doing, in our country, 
much the larger part of the work now done, and 
multitudes of men and women are without work, for 
the simple reason that under our present system of 
producing there is no work for them. 

If any one is still incredulous of these facts, let 
him open his eyes and mind to the things around 
him — see and inquire for himself. Ask any one 
who is running a machine how much he can do more 
than the hand worker ; and then ask himself, or any 
other person, how much more he can eat, or wear, or 
use, or consume, than could his father, and his incre- 
dulity will be quickly turned to wonder that he had 
not before discovered that man's power for the con- 
sumption of food and clothing, and use of shelter and 
the comforts of life, like man's need and power in the 
use of light, air, water, heat, and cold, are substan- 
tially the same in all ages of the world ; but that the 
limits of his power in producing that which depends 
upon his own industries, he has not yet discovered. 

And, now, the second question we will quickly an- 
swer. Why was it that less than two years of our 
war of the rebellion should have restored all our in- 
dustries ; set every man and woman at work at good 
wages; stimulated every avenue of business, and 
showered prosperity and wealth upon all classes, as 
fall the dews and rains of heaven, blessing all alike ? 
Why was it that that war left all in the north pros- 



54 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



perous, contented, and happy, excepting for the loss 
of loved ones upon the field of battle ? 

It was because all the idle men of the country, and 
a large number of the then employed, were put to 
work by the government, not to produce, but to con- 
sume and destroy. More than a million of men pro- 
duced nothing, but consumed and destroyed enor- 
mously of all the necessaries and many of the com- 
forts of life. This enormous consumption and de- 
struction compelled a corresponding production ; this 
enormous production compelled the employment of 
all the muscle and machinery of the nation, and the 
consequent payment of good wages to all workers, 
and large prices to all producers for their products, 
which enabled all producers and workers to buy and 
consume liberally. Thus not only opening a new 
market by the consumption of the soldier, but enor- 
mously extending and widening the markets of peace 
by the consumption of the working millions. In this 
manner was the paralysis broken, and our industries 
and trade made more prosperous than ever before. 

An eminent gentleman in Massachusetts, in a re- 
cent address, describes the then condition of our in- 
dustries as follows : — 

" There was a growth and development of business 
in the northern and western portion of the United 
States, such as no nation ever experienced before. 
There was building of new mills, and enlarging old 
ones ; there was adding tens of thousands of spindles 
to the thousands already running ; there was adding 
steam engines to aid water power, and the adoption 
of new machinery, which increased to a fabulous 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 55 

extent the capacity to manufacture cotton and woolen 
fabrics. 

"There was the establishment of hundreds of 
banks — the building of thousands of miles of rail- 
road — settling new countries — cutting down for- 
ests — building cities in most distant portions of the 
Republic — and opening communication by railroad 
with the Pacific Coast. 

" The history of those ten years of industrial growth 
and prosperity would fill many volumes. 

" Wages advanced as the industries increased. 
Workers in iron, and steel, and brass, and wood, and 
stone were as greatly in demand as workers in cotton 
and wool. The common coarse domestic cottons sold 
for fifty and sixty cents a yard, and woolen goods 
doubled, and trebled, and quadrupled in value. 

"Adding, as did these exorbitant prices, to the 
cost of living, wages kept pace with the goods, and 
our wives and children dressed better than before. 
The cost of the absolute necessaries of life were also 
in keeping with woolen and cotton goods. Flour, 
sugar, rice, coffee, tea, rents — all kept pace in the 
great inflation ; and families indulged not only in the 
necessaries, but in the luxuries, and everybody had 
abundance. Never before was there such apparent 
prosperity. There were no men wanting work who 
failed to find it ; and the laborer, even in the most 
ordinary avocation of life, fixed his own price. 

" Mechanics commanded from three to six dollars 
a day ; common field laborers demanded and realized 
from two and a half to three dollars ; professional 
men doubled their charges, and church committees 



56 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

recommended of their own accord increase of sala- 
ries to their pastors. 

"What days were these for America and Ameri- 
cans ! We may well look back upon them with 
wonder and astonishment ! They grew upon us so 
rapidly that we never stopped to consider that they 
might not always continue. But they had their cul- 
mination. In 1873 the great storm which this unpar- 
alleled expansion had been gathering burst upon the 
country, and from that day to this things have been 
growing worse rather than better." 

This condition of our industrial interests so truly 
described, which continued for about ten years, is 
here called " unparalleled expansion," "inflation," and 
"apparent prosperity," because it did "not always 
continue." As well say that we are never well, be- 
cause we may be ill ; that we are never strong, be- 
cause we become weak ; that we are never happy, 
because we may know misery. It is also often called 
the period of our insanity, drunkenness, debauchery, 
etc. Whatever it may be called, it was the period of 
and condition of health, strength, and happiness of 
all our people, because all exercised their strength, 
that gave us the proudest monuments of national 
progress that we possess. It was the condition that 
enabled Portland, Chicago, and Boston to rise from 
their ashes, clothed in greater beauty, and with 
greater strength, than before their destruction. Our 
cities, towns, colleges, schools, churches, libraries, 
and institutions of every character, all testify to the 
realness of that prosperity. If our people were then 
drunk or insane, let us again get drunk, or become 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 57 

insane, and stay so, for such drunkenness and insan- 
ity is better than sanity or sobriety, if such be our 
present condition. 

No ; all these allegations are the petty pleas of 
foolish children, who, having by their folly wrought 
a disaster, which they cannot or will not understand, 
at once begin to make all manner of meaningless 
excuses. But still there was an insanity at that pe- 
riod, which is the madness of this — the refusal to 
see and recognize the facts of our changing industrial 
conditions, as manifested in every direction, and to 
be guided by them. 

This condition of unparalleled prosperity grew out 
of, and was the direct result, of the war. The real 
reason of that prosperity w r as not that man was 
slaughtering his fellow man, but in the fact that the 
great consumption compelled a production which en- 
abled all men, either in the operations of that pro- 
duction, or in the service of the government, to ob- 
tain the means whereby they w r ere enabled to buy 
and consume liberally, making a market that was 
never glutted, and could not be paralyzed. It was 
the quick consumption of every product that created 
and stimulated every industry. 

Well may hundreds and thousands look and anx- 
iously wish for another war, as our only remedy for 
present evils. Most certainly better for our country 
was the state of war than is the present, for destitu- 
tion can furnish its hecatombs of victims equaling 
that of war, w r ith its own horrors. Our war of the 
rebellion had its redeeming features ; in it were found 
honor for some, and great prosperity for many; but 



58 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



periods like the present are unmitigated evils ; there 
are honors for none, but distress for all. 

Can we not again have repeated those periods of 
prosperity, by the simple arts of peace, and without 
the intervention of war ? Most certainly we can, as 
quickly and effectively, and far more permanently, 
than can be done by war. 

The great thing to be guarded against in the future 
is the too great use of our productive power, and con- 
sequent overproduction and inability to consume our 
products, with recurring paralyzation. 

Over production affects the body commercial, or 
politic, as over feeding does the body corporeal. 
When the foolish child, or still more foolish adult, 
gorges the stomach, inducing paralysis of the func- 
tions of the system, or general derangement, the first 
object of the wise parent, or skillful physician, is not 
to cram with more of the same food, but to remove 
the killing gorge, or the sufferer will quickly die, and 
then to see that no more food is taken than can be 
freely digested. So with the body politic ; the en- 
gorgement which produced the paralysis, the con- 
stipation, must be removed, and then avoiding all 
future engorgements, with all producing and using 
that only which can be surely and healthily con- 
sumed, will just as certainly give permanent health 
to the community as to the individual. 

But instead of limiting our production to our con- 
sumption, what are we doing ? Let us see. 

I have already shown that at the close of the war 
we had a producing capacity much greater than our 
power of consumption by all in peaceful pursuits. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 59 

At that time, so far as I know, there was no such 
thing as a textile manufactory in the whole of the 
late slave States. Since that time cotton manufacto- 
ries in great number have been there built and put 
in operation, and more are being built. Some time 
ago Tennessee had forty cotton mills, running 56,358 
spindles. In Georgia, at Atlanta, Augusta, Colum- 
bus, and Macon, are cotton mills. Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, and I know not 
what other States, have mills already in operation, 
and others being built, in all operating hundreds of 
thousands of spindles. The great northwest is also 
going largely into manufactures of all kinds. The 
development of manufactures in the South and West 
is by no means confined to cotton, though occupying 
a very prominent place. Manufactures in wool, 
wood, and iron are also being largely developed. At 
the same time there is a strong effort being made in 
many quarters to increase, rather than diminish, the 
hours of working. The grand result of all these op- 
erations is, taking one product as the type of all, that 
there is, in Fall River alone, a stock of more than 
fifty million yards of print cloths, offered at less than 
four cents a yard, but no buyers, with multitudes of 
our people suffering for want of these very cloths, but 
not able to pay even one cent a yard for enough to 
clothe themselves. Add to the Fall River stock that 
of Lowell, Lawrence, Manchester, New Bedford, 
Salem, and the scores of other places, and find, if 
you can, the result. This is no fancy picture, but 
one of the sternest reality. 

To meet this terrible condition of things there are 



60 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

a set of politicians who shut their eyes and minds, if 
they have either, to the facts around them, and shout 
more money, cheaper money, that we may produce 
more and cheaper; that is, use more machinery, dis- 
place more muscle — increase our production, de- 
crease our consumption — burn our candle at both 
ends, and make the flames as hot as possible. If this 
is not the meaning of their mad cry for more and 
cheaper money, it has no meaning. If money is 
made more abundant and cheaper, the only effect it 
could possibly have, under our present system, would 
be the setting of more machinery at work to the 
greater displacement of muscle, at once increasing 
production and reducing consumption, and thus in- 
tensifying our commercial difficulties as well as indus- 
trial. Not one of these madmen pretends that more 
and cheaper money will change the relations of ma- 
chinery and muscle. I doubt if they have the least 
conception of the revolution that has taken place in 
all our methods of production, and its effect upon all 
our interests. They have no knowledge of the real 
situation. Their arguments belong to past ages, if 
to any ; they have yet to learn that the world moves, 
and that so fast as to have left them at least two gen- 
erations behind. This is an age when mind has 
seized hold upon the forces of nature and compelled 
them to the labor of production, in great part releas- 
ing muscle from its slavish toil, and that is the condi- 
tion to be met. When these politicians have learned 
this fundamental truth, and upon that base their study 
of finance, we may hope for sanity, and financial 
discussions based on existing conditions. Never was 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 6 1 

truer saying since the world began than that, " whom 
the gods would destroy they first make mad." 

I have already briefly said, on page 41, that the 
only way for us to meet our labor difficulties is for all 
to work, but at such reduced time as to prevent over 
production. 

There can be no place where the law of compensa- 
tion operates with greater force than is witnessed 
here. The compensation, that is to say, the result, 
of enforced idleness is the cessation of consumption, 
the destruction of the market for every product, with 
consequent paralysis of every industry, and universal 
distress. The employment of all in production, and 
the consumption of all that is produced, is compen- 
sated in good wages, quick and full markets, high 
prices, and general prosperity. It was this law of. 
compensation that worked relief and prosperity by 
the war. Large numbers of active producers were 
drawn from producing, and with the idlers were 
made consumers in the operations of the war ; this 
process largely increased consumption, and required 
a larger production by the remaining producers, cre- 
ating higher prices for all products. 

When all again became producers, production at 
once became greater than consumption ; many were 
thrown out of employment, which lessened the mar- 
ket of consumption, weakened trade, knocked down 
prices, lowered wages, and increased stocks; more 
and more became idle, less and less was consumed, 
trade has been dying, and distress increasing, until 
we have reached our present point, and still the oper- 
ation is going on with no loss of vigor. 



62 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

To stop it, repeat the industrial operations of the 
war, with war left out. Instead of taking a large 
portion of the workers from industrial pursuits, and 
employing them, as in the war, in killing their fel- 
low men, and in the work of destruction, that the re- 
mainder may have long days of labor, at once put 
every man and woman at work, and reduce the time 
of their working in the same ratio as the number en- 
gaged in the operations of the war bore to the num- 
ber engaged in the arts of peace, and you at once 
secure all the industrial benefits conferred by the war, 
with the butchery, disease, and mourning left out. 

If, in the war, the changing of one third of our 
working force from productive pursuits to the pursuits 
of war, and its consumptions, had the effect of restor- 
ing our prosperity at that time, will not the same end 
be now achieved by keeping all at work, and short- 
ening by one third the time of working our machin- 
ery and muscle ? By either course the production is 
lessened by one third, and the consumption is not 
decreased. 

If you have twelve men at work, who are produc- 
ing twice the amount that can be consumed, in one 
of two ways you may reduce your production to the 
desired amount; that is, by shortening the time of 
working by one half, or by discharging one half of 
your men. By either process the desired end would 
be reached, but with a very different final result. By 
the one course all the men would be continued in 
consumption, and your market be fully protected ; by 
the other method one half the men lose their power 
to buy and consume, and your market is destroyed. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 63 

It is just this difference which causes all our present 
difficulties. In this principle lies the solution of the 
whole problem. 

Give the problem to any of your school children 
who have a knowledge of proportions, with the data, 
and those children will quickly give the result. It 
may be that the solution appears too simple. It is an 
old habit to reject solutions because of simplicity ; yet 
the most simple have always proved the most effec- 
tive ; it is a law of our existence. An intelligent 
examination of the subject will resolve the matter 
into something like an exact science. Why should it 
not ? We have all the data before us, and we do 
small credit to our boasted intelligence, and great 
mental abilities, in thus neglecting their use. Think 
of it, test it, and you will soon have the most grateful 
evidence that the law of compensation does not fail. 

I am asked by many in what way can these things 
be brought about. Says the owner of the line of 
horse cars, who is compelled to work his men from 
eleven to eighteen hours a day, and pay the smallest 
wages, What can I do ? I would like to pay more 
wages, and work less time; but I cannot do it — I 
can hardly pay expenses as it is, and can not in- 
crease them. 

True ; under the present condition of general em- 
ployment you can not alone change ; neither can any 
one, or any single business. Your business was estab- 
lished to meet a popular demand, and is wholly de- 
pendent upon the general public for success. When 
the general public is prosperous, you are liberally 
patronized, and share in the general prosperity ; 



6 4 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES . 



when the general public is poor, your business be- 
comes small, and you suffer with the many. In 
plain words this means that when the people are able 
to ride, they will ride ; but when they are without 
the means for riding they must walk, or not go at all. 
This principle applies to all businesses. Ask your 
groceryman, your butcher, your baker, your milk- 
man — ask'* any and every man in business — they 
will all tell you that when the working people have 
employment, with good wages, they are their best 
customers, and they are all prosperous ; but that 
w T hen the workingmen are idle, their business at once 
becomes unprofitable, rarely paying expenses with 
the greatest economy. These effects are not con- 
fined to what are usually called "business pursuits, " 
but to every avocation or condition in life, to the arts, 
to the professions, whether of the law, the ministry, 
the medical, the teaching, or whatever else. Our 
artists resident at Rome, as at home, testify that they 
are without orders because of our "hard times." 
And it is necessarily so ; we all build upon one foun- 
dation — that of general industry, of labor. When 
the foundation fails, the walls of the edifice begin to 
crack, and sooner or later the w r hole superstructure 
crumbles to one common ruin, if the foundation is not 
restored. Time was when, in all commercial and 
financial problems, the masses were a factor of small 
consequence; but, with our industrial methods, all 
that is changed ; now, in finance and commerce, the 
millions are the great, the prime factor. 

What you can do is what every man of intelligence 
and influence should do — make yourself acquainted 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 65 

with existing facts, open your eyes and mind to the 
things around you ; place those facts in position as 
you would a column of figures for addition, then obey 
their teachings, and do all you can to inform others ; 
in this way you will render the most effective service 
in bringing about the desired end. So soon as we 
learn the real cause of our labor difficulties the rem- 
edy will quickly follow. All that is wanted can not 
be obtained at once ; but the first step — correct 
knowledge — being obtained, all aftenvards become 
comparatively easy. But never lose sight of this one 
fact, that whatever fails to give all employment, 
which is the primal requirement of our creation, w r ith 
good living wages, fails utterly in the required result 
of making every man and woman a liberal consumer, 
and thus creating and preserving our greatest and 
most profitable market. 

Let me ask producers where are your greatest and 
best markets ? At home, or in foreign countries ? 

Let me ask the manufacturers when it was that 
they were most prosperous ; when did they have the 
greatest demand for their manufactures, with the 
highest prices, and pay the best dividends ? Was it 
not when the highest wages were paid, and when the 
workingmen were most able to buy and consume ? 

And when was it that they were least prosperous, 
got the least for their products, with the smallest de? 
mand ? Was it not when the workingmen w T ere most 
poorly paid, and least employed ? 

Do not good markets, large trade, great consump- 
tion, and high prices follow the general employment 
of the million at good wages, as certainly as light 
5 



66 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

follows the sun ? And do not idleness and low wages 
as surely stop trade, knock down prices, glut the 
market, and produce every business disaster, as the 
sinking of the sun brings on darkness ? 

Do not these causes and effects follow each other 
as surely as night follows day ? There is a law of 
compensation as certain in its operations as are the 
movements of the planets. The compensation of 
idleness is poverty, nonconsumption, loss of markets, 
general paralysis. The compensation of all working 
is good wages, prosperity, liberal consumption, quick 
markets, good prices, and great activity. This law 
will surely avenge itself, as we have now the fullest 
evidence. 

Shall we not learn from these lessons what are our 
true interests, and as a matter of selfish policy, if not 
from any higher motives, stop this squeezing of our 
laboring goose, and give it again the health and pro- 
tection that will insure us a bountiful supply of gold- 
en eggs ? Or shall we wait for another war, for vio- 
lence, as the remedy ? Shall we w r ait until our poor 
goose has been turned to a naked, hungry, raging 
fury, seeking only to destroy ? My candid judgment 
is, that we will not have long to wait; already the 
clouds are gathering in their deepest blackness in the 
northern and western skies. Don't let us delay until 
the storm bursts upon us, with its lightnings and 
thunders rending our whole social fabric. Don't let 
us forget that want creates madness, and a madman 
is beyond the control of reason. 

Here, in the United States, we have all the condi- 
tions for eminent prosperity. We have a vast terri- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 67 

tory, extending from ocean to ocean, and from the 
tropics to the frigid zone, with a soil and climate 
adapted to the bounteous production of all the neces- 
saries of life, and much the larger part of the luxu- 
ries. Our seasons follow in such uniform succession 
that seed time and harvest rarely or never fail. We 
are never afflicted with wide famines, nor destroyed 
by general floods. Our mountains and plains are 
covered with the greatest abundance of useful and 
ornamental woods, and filled with an affluence of all 
the useful and precious metals, and, also, inexhausti- 
ble stores of building and ornamental stone, coal, and 
oil. Rivers, streams, lakes, and harbors everywhere 
abound, giving highways and power upon every 
hand. The God of nature has dealt bountifully with 
us, giving, in the greatest abundance, all the ele- 
ments of health and strength. 

We have a population of nearly fifty millions of 
free men and women, governing and controlling our- 
selves by our united, or general, wisdom or folly. 
Our people are more generally educated, more intel- 
lectually advanced, with a more general and higher 
civilization than blesses any other people. Out of 
our civilization, our general intellectual advancement, 
has grown a knowledge and use of the forces of na- 
ture — the invention of machinery, the adoption of 
labor saving processes — by which we are enabled, 
with the expenditure of far less physical force than 
in former ages, and great economy in time, to pro- 
duce, in the greatest abundance, everything necessary 
to the health and comfort of all. More than this, 
these new forces have developed, and are continually 



68 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

developing and widening the use of new and valua- 
ble productions that could not otherwise be known. 
This power marks the highest order of civilization ; 
but, like every other great power, when perverted, 
turned from its proper use, it becomes the instrument 
for producing the greatest evils, as is now illustrated. 
By the blessings of our Creator we are surrounded 
with everything necessary to prosperity and happi- 
ness ; by our own folly we pervert all our opportuni- 
ties and powers, and change our blessings to curses. 
The law of compensation avenges itself. A Divine 
Providence immutably speaks through all His laws. 

Ours is the opportunity to not only bless ourselves, 
but to become an example to all other peoples ; to 
teach all nations that there is a way in which the 
highest good of all may be reached, and that the 
highest good of all is the greatest good of the indi- 
vidual. Not that every man and woman can reach 
the same degree or position, but that all should have 
a, or some, prosperity, limited only by capacity. 

This can not be brought about by degrading our 
industrial classes to a grovelling competition with the 
pauper labor, and slavish customs, of other peoples. 
We have already had too much of that, bringing, as 
it does, their wretchedness to our own doors. If 
philanthropy is our object, it goes hand in hand with 
our interests — by our own prosperity, guided by 
wise and healthful practices at home, to furnish an 
example to follow. 



A PAPER 



DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR BY IMPROVEMENTS 
IN MACHINERY, 

By a Committee appointed by the American Social Science 
Association, coinposed of Lorin Blodgett, of Philadelphia, 
Rev. Edward E. Hale, W. Godwin Moody, John J. Mc- 
Nutt, and H. C. Turner, of Boston, and read before the 
Association at their Annual Meeting, in Cincinnati, May 24, 
1878, by W. Godwin Moody. 



[Note. — The references made to pages and lines in the matter following is to matter in 
the first portion of this volume, and for the purpose of avoiding repetitions.] 

ON the first day of March last I was gratified when the 
Rev. Edward E. Hale, of Boston, informed me that 
the American Social Science Association had determined 
to inquire into " The Displacement of Labor by Improve- 
ments in Machinery." Gratified that now, after machinery 
has been at work for more than half a century, with its 
marvelous development of powers before unknown, rapidly 
revolutionizing all our industrial conditions, changing our 
financial and commercial laws and customs, and modifying 
our social and political relations, a body of earnest think- 
ers, men of culture and power, have determined to inquire 
what influence this mighty giant has upon labor — the 
foundation upon which our wdiole social and political 
structure is built. 

To the request of the Association that I would assist in 
the inquiry I most gladly respond. On consultation w 7 ith 
the Rev. Mr. Hale and the Secretary of the Association, 
and communication with Mr. Blodgett, I learned that it was 
expected that I would mainly prepare and present the pa- 
per ; and with the counsel and approval of my committee 

69 



JO OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

associates, Mr. John J. McNutt, of the Novelty Wood 
Works, Boston, and Mr. H. C. Turner, Superintendent of 
the Ames Plow Company, also of Boston, were added to 
the committee, that its inquiries might he directed under 
the knowledge and influence of well informed experts in 
their specialties. To Mr. Wm. A. Burke, Treasurer of the 
Lowell Machine Shop, I am indebted for a valuable paper 
upon improvements in cotton machinery, and to Mr. Rich- 
ard Garced, of Philadelphia, for a statement of like devel- 
opment in machinery in yarn manufacture, in his mill, in 
that city. In other specialties the facts necessary to this 
discussion are generally accessible. 

In discussing this question machines and tools of the 
present period will be compared with those of the time of 
our fathers, to show the changes and effects within the life 
experience of many of us ; and our attention will be mainly 
confined to a few leading industries, they sufficiently indi- 
cating the universal tendency. 

It having been alleged that the resume of the develop- 
ments of machinery, and its effects upon labor, as contained 
in my essay upon " Our Labor Difficulties, " does not con- 
tain sufficient specific data, that it is too general in its state- 
ments to be satisfactory, I will here add a few confirmatory 
facts that cannot fail to astonish those who have not before 
examined this subject. 

A paper on " The Displacement of Labor by Improve- 
ments in Machinery," I interpret to be an inquiry as to 
what extent, if any, has machinery taken the place of mus- 
cle in general production and manufacture, and what have 
been the general effects. We will begin with agriculture. 

[See page n line 15, to line 10 page 12.] 

In the use of the sickle the day of our fathers would ex- 
ceed, rather than fall short of, fifteen hours. But I estimate 
upon ten hours for a work day. 

The reapers here referred to are those in common use in 
New England, and other places where the land is quite un- 
even, rough, or hilly, having cutters about five feet long ; 
but for the great grain regions of the West, for the smooth, 
flat, or prairie lands of Illinois, and other sections in the 
valley of the Mississippi, and in California, cutters are 
made and in common use of 10 and 12 feet in length ; some 
15 and 18, and even 24 feet long are used, cutting swaths 
of these widths ; and proportionately is the reaping hastened 
and muscular labor displaced. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 71 

[See page 12, lines 13 to 21.] 

But, in California, machines are made and used which at 
one and the same time, in moving over the field, cut the 
grain, thrash, winnow, and sack it, and the filled sacks are 
left in rows where, but a few moments before, stood the 
golden grain untouched, inviting to its harvest. 

For our great corn crop the corn planter is used, as is the 
seed sower for smaller grain. Then, instead of using the 
hoe, as did our fathers in working their corn, where a man 
found a hard and long day's work in hoeing half an acre, a 
man or boy will now seat himself upon a cultivator, with a 
pair of horses before him, and work one acre an hour ; 
one man now doing with this machine as much as could 
be done by 20 men with hoes. Please bear in mind, also, 
that the plowing with our modern plows, and cultivating 
and working with our modern cultivators and harrows so 
improves the condition of the ground as to make a marked 
increase in the crop. After the corn was harvested our 
fathers would turn a shovel upside down over a box, sit on 
it, and drawing the ears of corn with force and vigor across 
its edge shell 20 bushels in a long day ; and hard work it 
was. Now, two men will take the ordinary improved corn 
sheller, and shell 24 bushels in an hour, or 240 bushels in a 
short day ; leaving out of the account the difference in the 
length of the days worked, this shows that six times as 
much is now done with this machine as our fathers could 
do by the old methods. With the three classes of horse 
power machines, two men will shell 1,500, 2,000, and 
3,000 bushels respectively per day of 10 hours ; one man 
and machine now doing the work of 37^-, 50, and 75 men 
respectively, without machinery. 

So, also, in our important hay crop, the machine mower 
is first put in, one man with team cutting as much grass as 
could 12 men with scythes; then follows the tedder with 
a man and horse to scatter and turn it, to facilitate its dry- 
ing, doing the work of 20 men with the hand fork, and so 
much better as to reduce the time between cutting and har- 
vesting at least 24 hours. Then follows the horse rake, 
raking 20 acres a day, while a man with the ordinary hand 
rake can rake but two. Here the machine and man does 
the work of 12, 20, and 10 men respectively, with the old 
appliances. 

In all these operations in agriculture there is a displace- 
ment of labor by improvements in machinery of from one 



72 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

doing the work of three in sowing grain, to 12 J in plowing, 
and 3S4 in cutting grain at harvest, according to the kind 
of work done, and the class of machinery used for the par- 
ticular operation. 

[See page 12 line 22, to page 15 line 18, omitting note.~] 
Let us examine the facts upon this point, and see the ex- 
tent to which this thing has been done. The Frankford 
yarn mill, in Philadelphia, during the month of July, 1877, 
in all its operations from the receipt of the raw material to 
the delivery of the finished product, employed 151 persons 
of both sexes and all ages. In the 23J- days in which the 
mill run during that month there was produced 1,723,433 
skeins of yarn, containing 840 yards each, which gave for 
the month a fraction over 822,547 miles in length of yarn, 
or 35,002 miles a day. It would require 61,603 women, 
with the old hand cards and spinning wheels, to produce the 
same amount in the same length of time, 1,000 yards of 
yarn, carded and spun, having been a day's task for a day 
of ten hours, with those old machines. In my essay upon 
" Our Labor Difficulties " it is estimated that it w r ould re- 
quire 100,000 women, with the old hand cards and spinning 
wheels, to have produced the amount of yarn here reported. 
At the time of publishing that essay I had been unable to 
find any person who had been accustomed to the use of the 
old machines and tools, and who knew what a day's work 
by our mothers amounted to, or any authority upon that 
point. But in March last Aunt Tabitha, the spinner at the 
Spinning Bees of the Old South Church Exhibition, in 
Boston, gave me the desired information, and I am glad to 
be able to place the amount on record. Her formula for 
stating the day's work for carders and spinners when she 
was a girl was, that 40 threads, 2 yards long, made a knot, 
7 knots made a skein, and 5 skeins of warp, or 6 skeins of 
filling, were a day's work for a spinner ; and that it took as 
long to card the cotton or wool as to spin it. A day's work 
in those "times was 15 to 16 hours. This statement gives 
for an average day's work by our mothers about 3,080 yards 
for two persons, in 15 hours, or, say, 1,000 yards in 10 
hours for one person. Upon this basis I make my estimate. 
I was also informed by Mr. Richard Garced, the proprietor 
of the mill, that he was then employing only one half the 
number of hands that were employed in 1872, though turn- 
ing out fully as much work, having since that time refur- 
nished the mill with new machinery. 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 73 

This statement shows a displacement of 50 per cent, of 
the former employes in that mill by improvements in its 
machinery in the five years between 1872 and 1877 ; and 
that one person, with improved machinery, now fills the 
place and does the work that required 408 carders and 
spinners with the tools and machinery in common use at 
the commencement of this century. 

At a meeting of the New England Cotton Manufacturers 
Association, held in Boston, October 5, 1876, Mr. Wm. A. 
Burke, Treasurer of the Lowell Machine Shop Company, 
read a paper upon the " Cost of Manufacturing Drillings 
and Standard Sheetings in 1838 and 1876." In this paper 
Mr. Burke took the Boott Mill No. 1 as a type for his illus- 
tration. In this mill, in 1838, there were 232 operatives 
employed I2f hours a day for 24 days in May, who pro- 
duced 208,606 yards of cloth. But in 1876, 90 operatives, 
the number then employed, working 10 hours a day, pro- 
duced 204,863 yards. Reducing the I2f hours of 1838 to 
10 hours a day, the working time of 1876, shows that it 
would have required 295 operatives in 1838, working 10 
hours a day, to produce but a small fraction more than 90 
operatives produced in the same number of days, in the 
same mill, in 1876. Here is shown a displacement, by im- 
provements in the machinery of one mill, within the last 
40 years, of 7° P er cent, of manual labor in the production 
of cotton fabrics. Mr. Burke stated that " this improve- 
ment," i. e., the displacement of muscle, " had been ob- 
tained by larger mills, improvements in the construction 
and workmanship of machinery, and many important in- 
ventions and attachments to save labor and perfect work ; 
the number of looms a weaver is now able to tend having 
more than doubled. In 1838 two looms to a weaver was 
the rule, though there were cases of three or more being 
tended by one person. Now, the practice is for four to six, 
and even eight looms to be run by one weaver," etc. He 
further stated that, " Since 1861 all the mills owned by the 
Boott Cotton Mills have been renovated and enlarged, sup- 
plied with additional motive power, new shafting, and an 
entirely new suit of machinery, of the latest construction, 
arranged for the greatest economy in operating ; " which 
means for the least possible employment of manual labor. 

Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, during the discussion 
at that meeting, said, " A man who owned a mill of the 
style of 1838 to-day would be a bankrupt. He could not 



74 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



run it. The whole success depends on the constant adop- 
tion of new and improved machinery. The machines have 
become more distinctly self-operative, requiring only to be 
kept in order, and kept up by oversight, rather than by the 
actual work of those who tend them." 

In Fall River the rule is eight looms to the weaver, run 
at a speed that gives 44 cuts of 45 yards each per week, 
making 1 ,980 yards per week for each weaver, or 330 yards 
a day. Our mothers could weave upon their looms about 
three yards in ten hours work. So that in weaving there 
has been not only a displacement of 75 per cent, of muscle 
in our mills in the last 40 years, mostly within the last 15, 
but to-day one girl weaver with her improved machine 
looms stands in the place that would have required 100 
women in our mothers' time to fill. 

In the Massachusetts Labor Bureau Report for 1875 I 
find the statement that in 1865, 18,753 operatives produced 
46,008,141 yards of woolen goods; but that in 1875, 19,036 
operatives produced 90,208,280 yards ; showing an appar- 
ent increase in muscular employment of 283 operatives. 
But to make a true comparative showing by this statement 
a most important adjustment is necessary. In 1865 the 
working time was 12 hours a day; in 1875 it was 10. 
Making an adjustment of the time worked in these two pe- 
riods will show that in 1865 it would have required 22,504 
operatives, working 10 hours a day, to produce 46,008,141 
yards, but in 1875, 19,036 operatives produced 90,208,280 
yards. Showing at once not only an absolute reduction of 
19 per cent, in the muscular labor employed, but an in- 
crease of 98 per cent, in the product ; being in all a dis- 
placement of labor by improvements in machinery equal to 
58 per cent, in ten years. 

Full 40 years ago machine cards, spinners, and looms 
had utterly destroyed all our domestic or household manu- 
factures, and compelled those who were engaged in them, 
the sons and daughters of our farms and rural districts, to 
find employment in the mills of our manufacturing towns 
and cities, or live in idleness. Since that time 70 per cent, 
of the hand labor then required in the mills in the produc- 
tion of textile fabrics has been displaced by improvements 
in their machinery. What has been done in the Philadel- 
phia yarn mill, and in the Boott mills, in Lowell, has been 
done and is still doing in every mill in our country. 

\JSee page 15 line 19, to page 17 line 6.] 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 75 

We will note the work of some half dozen of the ma- 
chines now in general use in building and carpentry. The 
circular saw, controlled by one man, will saw more in one 
hour than can be done in 10 hours with a hand saw ; with 
the molding machine one man can work out more moldings 
than can ten men by hand ; in planing the planing ma- 
chine, controlled by one man, will do the work of 15 or 20 
men with hand planes ; in cutting mortises and making 
tenons, one man with a machine will do the work of 10 
men by the old methods ; with a jig saw he will do the 
work of 8 men with the old tools ; and with the band saw 
will do the work of 12 men by the old methods. These 
facts show a general displacement of muscle by machinery 
of at least 90 per cent, in our great building interests. 

\_See fage 17, lines 10 to 20.] 

Let us examine some facts in the development of this 
great industry since many of us were boys. Before the use 
of machinery in the making of boots and shoes, say 50 
years ago, the world by no means went barefooted ; and 
yet, working not less than 15 hours a day, the utmost that 
a shoemaker could do was to make 200 pairs of boots and 
shoes in a year. At that time men only were the workers. 
But an examination of the Massachusetts Labor Bureau re- 
ports show that in 1845, 45,877 operatives, men, women, 
and children, working twelve hours a day with machinery, 
produced 20,896,312 pairs of boots and shoes, being 455 
pairs per hand, and an increase of 125 per cent, per hand 
over hand labor. In 1855 there were employed 77,827 per- 
sons, who produced 45,066,828 pairs, being at the rate of 
579 pairs each, and an increase of nearly 27^- per cent, per 
hand for that decade. In 1865, 52,821 persons produced 
.31,870,581 pairs, being at the rate of 603 pairs each, and an 
increase of little more than 4 per cent, for each operative in 
the previous ten years. But in 1875 there were employed 
48,090 persons, working not more than 10 hours a day, and 
for little over 8 months in the year, who made 59,762,866 
pairs, being at the rate of 1,243 pairs each, and an increase 
of 106 per cent, per hand for the preceding ten years, as. 
appears upon the face of the report. But to make a true 
comparative showing by this statement, the daily working 
time of the two periods, 10 hours in 1875 and 12 hours for 
the preceding periods, must be adjusted, and the one third 
lost time in 1875 must also be taken into account; this 
would give 23,000 plus as the number who, working 12 



fj6 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

hours a day, could make 59,762,866 pairs in 1875, being at 
the rate of 2,598 pairs each, being an increase of 471 per 
cent, per hand over 1845, and, as compared with 1855, 
showing an increased power of production which would 
enable 23,000 operatives in 1875 to make 14,696,038 more 
pairs than could 77,827 persons in 1855 — nearly 55,000 
less workers, and more than 14,000,000 pairs in increased 
product. This shows an increase in production, by im- 
provements in machinery, of very nearly 450 per cent, in 
20 years, and of 1,300 per cent, over the hand labor of 50 
years ago, and corresponding displacement of manual labor. 
And now comes a California inventor with his machine for 
bottoming boots and shoes, claiming to save at least 70 per 
cent, of the present cost of material and work in that ope- 
ration, and turning out from 30 to 40 pairs per hour. 
\_See page 17 line 23, to line 29 page 21.] 
We will again turn to the reports of the Labor Bureau 
for Massachusetts and examine a few of the facts there 
found. In the Census Compendium for 1875, pp. 129-134, 
is a tabular statement entitled, " Principal Manufactures for 
1845, 1855, 1865, and 1875," representing 55 industries, 
showing, among other things, the number of persons em- 
ployed in the years above named, wherein it is stated that 
in those principal industries, in 1865, there were employed 
225,979 operatives, while in 1875, in the same employments, 
248,313 were at work, making an apparent increase of mus- 
cular employment equal to 22,334 persons in the aggregate. 
But making an adjustment for the difference in working 
time for these two periods, being 12 hours a day in 1865, 
and 10 hours in 1875, would show, instead of an increase, 
there was an actual loss of muscular labor equal to that of 
2,597 operatives. But taking the report upon its face, 
which shows that the percentage of increase in the popula- 
tion of the State was 30.38, by a little calculation we dis- 
cover that the increase of workers in these principal manu- 
factures should have been 68,652 ; and there is another 
factor which should enter into this estimate, and must not 
be altogether ignored; that is, the 61,946 men returned 
from the army to the industries of that State at the close of 
the war of the rebellion, after the. census of 1865 had been 
taken. Making the proper correction for this factor in the 
percentages of increase of population and of this industrial 
class, shows that 120,209 persons were added to this class, 
and only 22,334 found employment, leaving 97,875 unac- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 77 

counted for. What has become of this nearly 100,000 
working people who are not here accounted for? 

This same table shows that in the five manufactures of ar- 
tisans' tools, clothing, glass, straw and palm leaf, and ves- 
sels and materials, the number of operatives fell from 50,102 
in 1865, to 22,691 in 1875, being a displacement of 27,411 
persons who w T ere there employed. 

On the 19th of February last a meeting was held at the 
Mayor's office, in Boston, to see what could be done for the 
unemployed labor in that city. As a preparation for that 
meeting I visited a number of the representative men and 
firms engaged in the leading mechanical industries in that 
city, including building, church and parlor organs, pianos, 
locomotives, machinery, etc., usually employing thousands 
of men, to learn the number then employed as compared 
with three and four years ago — since the taking of the cen- 
sus of 1875 — and the 1 1 reports received show a falling off 
of 56 per cent, in number, and a decrease in wages of 25 
per cent. The Massachusetts Labor Report for 1878 gives 
an average decrease of 91 per cent, in w T ages in the general 
industries, and an average loss of i| days in time in the 
year, but an increase of 2\ per cent, in the number em- 
ployed. By the usual increase in population the number 
of workers, or those who should be so, have increased 7^ 
per cent, since 1875. What has become of the 5 per cent, 
unaccounted for, who cannot be less than 17,309? 

On pp. 270-276 of the Compendium for 1875, Massa- 
chusetts Labor Bureau, is a very interesting table, exhibit- 
ing at a glance, in 262 wage earning occupations, the aver- 
age number of days employed in the year, the average 
yearly wages, and the average yearly cost of living. The 
totals are not there given ; but I find them to be, for the 
number of days employed, 226^-, being a fraction less than 
9 months in the year, reckoning 308 working days to the 
year; the average yearly wages were $366.69, being $1.19 
a day for the full year ; and the average yearly cost of living 
was $381.54, being nearly $1.24 a day, and 5 cents a day 
more than was received for their work. The bureau report 
for 1878 gives 9^ per cent, as the reduction on average 
wages since 1875, which reduces the same to $1.08 a day. 
Since the compilation of the report for 1878 it is notorious 
that the mills at Fall River, and in other places, have re- 
duced wages 15 per cent., which brings them down to 92 
cents a day. This is the average amount paid to those who 



tj8 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

do work ; for I think no one can for a moment doubt that a 
large reduction or increase in wages in so great an interest 
as that of our textile manufactures must and will corres- 
pondingly affect all other interests. Spread this amount 
over the 115,000 belonging to the industrial class not ac- 
counted for, and we find that it gives an average of less 
than 70 cents for this entire working class. Certainly not 
an extravagant sum to support a family upon, nor an 
amount that will permit much riotous living by one person. 
Still this is the full amount contributed to the volume of 
trade by this class. 

In that State 318,768 men, women, and children, are the 
number given who, with the aid of machinery, do the work 
that would require 1,912,488 men, without machinery. 
Here we see that machinery in that State alone saves or 
displaces the labor of 1,593,720 men. Of these 318,768, 
94,655 were women, of whom 9,498 were married ; 6,671 
were boys, and 4,988 were girls, between 10 and 15 years 
of age ; and 84 boys and 168 girls under 10 years. Show- 
ing that more than one third of the workers in the factories 
and shops, engaged in running machinery, were women 
and children, whilst more than a Tiundred thousand men 
are compelled to idleness. The great percentage of wo- 
men and children here shown to be running machinery to 
the exclusion of men, gives full force and significance to the 
statement made by Mr. Edward Atkinson, heretofore quot- 
ed, that " the machines have become more distinctly self- 
operative, requiring only to be kept in order, and kept up 
by oversight, rather than by the actual work of those who 
tend them." A woman or child may tend such machines 
as well as a man, and they are paid only about half as 
much. A destruction of our women and slaughter of our 
innocents in the service of — what? Is it competition, or 
avarice, or recklessness, or all three? Certainly a necessity 
for these sacrifices does not appear. 

I take it to be true that the condition of Massachusetts, as 
to her industries, is not materially better nor worse than 
others of our industrial States ; nor, upon the whole, than 
of our agricultural States, also ; therefore I have taken her 
statistics for data. 

Upon these most important matters now under considera- 
tion the United States census reports, and reports of the 
Board of Statistics, go for nothing. The condition of the 
people, the state of their industries, their employment or 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. jg 

their idleness, their production and home trade and con- 
sumption, their comfort or distress, all go for nothing. 
Their number is sought for and recorded, but their condi- 
tion is not a matter of the least consequence. Large sums 
are expended, and much work is done, to know and im- 
prove the condition of our foreign trade, which does not 
exceed five per cent, of the great aggregate ; but of the 95 
per cent, which is supposed to represent the home trade 
and consumption, when has government expended a dollar 
in its behalf, or boards of trade, or political economists 
considered it a factor worthy of examination? 

Having with more or less minuteness and brevity given 
the facts as to machinery, more or less " self-operative," 
taking the place of muscle in the productions of something 
like a dozen of our greatest industries, it may be safely as- 
serted that there is not a product or industry without its 
labor saving machinery or process, and in every case work- 
ing a displacement of muscle similar to that I have here 
described. 

\_See page 23, lines 16 to 24.] 

Just here let me call your attention to one of the latest, if 
not the very latest, use of machinery or labor saving pro- 
cess, that has been devised to get rid of manual labor. 
It is that of lighting street lamps by electricity. In the 
popular mind the lamplighter was safe from attacks of the 
machine ; but in the mind of the inventor no person nor 
thing is safe from his effort to get rid of muscle. All the 
lamps in any of our largest cities, numbered by tens of 
thousands, may be lighted at the same moment, by one 
person, by a little pressure of the thumb upon a knob, like 
that of the electric bells in our hotels and houses, and quick 
a« the lightnings hundreds and thousands of lamplighters — 
all of them — are displaced by improvements in machinery. 

Now let us see what have been the general effects which 
have resulted from the use of labor saving machinery. I 
will briefly sum them up in a few distinct conclusions. 

First. — It has broken up and destroyed our whole sys- 
tem of agriculture as practised by our fathers, which re- 
quired the whole time and attention of all the sons of the 
farm and many from the towns, in the never ending duties 
of food production, and has driven them to the towns and 
cities to hunt for employment, or remain in great part idle. 

Second. — It has broken up and destroyed our whole sys- 
tem of household and family manufactures, as done by our 



80 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

mothers, when all took part in the labor and shared in the 
product, to the comfort of all, and has compelled the daugh- 
ters of our country and towns to factory operations for 10 
to 12 hours a day, in the manufacture of a cloth they may 
not wear, though next to nakedness in the shivering blast ; 
or to the city to ply their needles for 1 8 or 20 hours a day, 
in hunger and cold ; or to the street in thousands, spinning 
yarns and weaving webs that become their shrouds. 

Third. — It has broken up and destroyed our whole sys- 
tem of working in wood, and iron, and leather, in small 
shops of one, two, or it may be half a dozen workmen, in 
every town, village, or hamlet in the country, with black- 
smith shops in near neighborhood upon every road, where 
every man was a workman who could take the rough iron, 
or unshaped wood and uncut leather, and carry it through 
all its operations until a thoroughly finished article was pro- 
duced, and has compelled all to production in large shops, 
where machinery has minutely divided all work, requiring 
only knowledge and strength enough to attend a machine 
that will heel shoes, or cut nails, or card wool, or spin 
yarn, or do some other small fraction of a complete whole. 

Fourth. — It has broken up and destroyed our whole sys- 
tem of individual and independent action in production and 
manufacture, where any man who possessed a trade by his 
own hands could at once make that trade his support and 
means of advancement, free of control by any other man, 
and has compelled all working men and women to a system 
of communal work where, in hundreds and thousands they 
are forced to labor with no other interest in the work than 
is granted to them in the wages paid for so much toil ; with 
no voice, no right, no interest in the product of their hands 
and brains, but subject to the uncontrolled interest and ca- 
price of those who, too often, know no other motive than 
that of avarice. 

Fifth. — It has so enormously developed the power of 
production as to far outstrip man's utmost power of con- 
sumption, enabling less than one half of the producing and 
working classes, working 10 hours a day, to produce vastly 
more than a market can be found for ; filling our granaries, 
warehouses, depots, and stores with enormous amounts of 
products of every description, for which there is no sale, 
though never before offered at such low prices, with multi- 
tudes of men and women in the greatest want — being with- 
out food, clothing, or shelter — without work and conse- 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 8 1 

quently without means to obtain the simplest necessaries 
of life. 

Sixth. — It has thrown out of employment substantially 
one half of the working classes. In fact it has utterly de- 
stroyed all regular or constant employment for any consid- 
erable class in any industry, and is constantly and steadily 
displacing able and willing men and filling their places 
with women and children ; leaving no place to be filled by, 
and no demand for, the constantly increasing numbers de- 
veloped in our increase of population, in this way also rap- 
idly adding to the number of the unemployed. It takes 
married women in thousands from their maternal cares and 
duties ; and children, but little more than infants, from the 
schools, putting them to the care of machinery in its work, 
until quite one third of the machine tenders in our country 
are women and children. Thus breaking down the moth- 
ers, slaughtering the infants, and giving employment to any 
who obtain it only upon such conditions of uncertainty, in- 
security, competition with the workless, and steady reduc- 
tion in wages as creates a constant struggle to obtain the 
little work they do have, and get such compensation for it 
as will barely support life even when in health. 

These points show clearly the changes that have taken 
place in all our industries within a period of little more 
than half a century ; changes greater than the world has 
before known during its whole existence. And here is also 
shown the effect which these great changes have made in 
the condition of the large mass of the working people. It 
is clearly shown that our powers of production have enor- 
mously increased ; that this increase has been altogether in 
the development of labor saving machinery, which has be- 
come the great producer, taking the place of muscle at least 
as ten to one. Plenty is more and more burdening the 
land ; the industrial classes have become poorer and poorer, 
until with greater abundance than we ever before had, there 
is a greater amount of idleness, want, and distress than we 
have ever before known. Every age has been scarred with 
distresses ; there have been floods and famines, diseases and 
pestilences, wants and miseries everywhere, but in all cases 
growing out of conditions over which man then had no 
control. But it is left for this age of extraordinary develop- 
ment, this age of illimitable power of production, of the 
highest degree of civilization, to find the greatest want and 
suffering in the midst of the greatest abundance ; to starve 
6 



82 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

surrounded with food ; to go naked and freeze in the midst 
of mountains of clothing and fuel ; to be without shelter 
with thousands upon thousands of houses vacant. 

We have been considering specially the condition of our 
mechanical industries, producers, and laborers — the wage 
receivers — the users of machinery and muscle. Bad as is 
their condition, that other great class known as clerks, sales- 
men, carriers, etc., is no better. Visit the stores and shops 
of our towns and cities — the counting rooms, warehouses, 
etc. — and learn the vast numbers of boys and girls, always 
compelled to be well dressed, yet receiving but from one to 
four dollars a week ; men and women receiving from four 
to seven dollars a week, with frequent vacations stopping 
all salary, and the few who receive living compensation ; 
then mark the hosts in our towns and cities, without em- 
ployment, who haunt every store and place of business day 
after day and month after month, and you will see that the 
condition of the mechanics, artisans, and factory operatives 
is the condition of the whole class of workers, who are not 
less than four fifths of our whole population. 

The distress of our people is by no means confined to the 
working classes, as witness the nearly 40,000 failures of the 
last five years, including every known interest in our coun- 
try, whether producing, manufacturing, carrying, trading, 
or banking, and now in greater numbers and volume than 
ever before ; the first quarter of 1878 giving 3,355 failures, 
with $82,078,826 liabilities, against 2,855 failures for 
$54,538,070 in 1877, anc * 2,806 for $64,644,156 in 1876. 
This statement, from the Mercantile Agency of E. Russell 
& Co., Boston, is introduced with the remark that, " We 
regret that it is not more encouraging in its aspect ; but it 
should be remembered that we have passed through an ex- 
ceptional winter, probably the worst that has been experi- 
enced in its effect upon the general retail trade of the coun- 
try during the past twenty years. The results anticipated 
from the abundant crops have not been realized, and stocks 
purchased to supply wants have been absolutely unsalable, 
and moreover have had of necessity to be sacrificed. The 
shrinkage of resources during the past six months has un- 
doubtedly, in the aggregate, been enormous." Hundreds 
of factories, mills, and workshops of every kind, in every 
direction, have stopped business, throwing all their work 
people into the great mass of the unemployed ; others are 
running upon short or half time ; whilst those that still 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 83 

continue do so under the greatest difficulties, many at great 
loss, and all in the greatest uncertainty. Real estate has 
depreciated quite one half, with everything still falling, and 
bankruptcies more frequent than ever ; with wages and sal- 
aries still dropping lower and lower, and the unemployed 
class becoming greater and greater. Yet notwithstanding 
so many factories and mills stop producing, or run upon 
short time, stocks of products do but little diminish and the 
market is not materially relieved. 

Why is it? Let us see if we cannot find the true reason. 

Our whole system of production and manufacture is now 
established upon the principle of producing for a market. 
Not, as were the agriculture and household manufactures of 
our fathers, for home and domestic use first, last, and al- 
ways, only exchanging a small part for that which could 
not be produced at home. But now all work is concen- 
trated into great producing establishments, under the influ- 
ence and control of organized capital^ for the sole purpose 
of finding a market and making a profit. Unconsciously 
recognizing the fact that the great market is in the million, 
who are the great body of consumers, the great mass of our 
products are adapted to the use of the million. As witness 
our huge textile manufactures; not one mill in the whole 
lot is run to produce goods solely to meet the demands of 
millionaires — of the rich — but they all produce for the mil- 
lion ; the use and demands of the millionaires are but inci- 
dents in the trade. Stop the consumption and trade of the 
millionaires, a small percentage only is lost; but stop the 
consumption and trade of the million, at once the whole 
textile interest is dead, carrying to destruction the million- 
aires who live upon it, with all its ramifications, running 
back to the growing of the cotton in the South, and of the 
wool, even to Australia, or on the pampas of South Amer- 
ica. Precisely the same facts obtain in the great boot and 
shoe interest, in the publishing interest, whether of books 
or papers, in agriculture, in transportation and travel, in 
everything. They are all sustained by the million, the 
great body of consumers, or not at all. 

Now, who are the million who sustain all these inter- 
ests ? Why, they are the workers in these very factories, 
mills, workshops, upon the farms, railroads, steamships, 
streets, highways, sewers, in our stores, counting houses, 
pulpits, schools, colleges, everywhere, anywhere that wages 
are paid or salaries earned, aggregating at least nineteen 



8 4 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



twentieths of our population ; these are the million, of the 
most vital importance in trade and consumption in propor- 
tion to their numbers, and not in relation to their social 
rank. I will not so insult your intelligence as to think that 
you need evidence to prove these self evident facts. 

Manifestly, then, the indispensable requisite of success 
under our present system of producing and manufacture is, 
that the ultimate market should be in good condition, should 
be healthv and strong. In this view of the matter the indi- 
vidual and collective man takes on a new importance, and 
that of the greatest consequence to all our industries — that 
of a consumer. A few weeks ago I heard Mrs. Livermore, 
in one of the leading pulpits in Boston, declare that man's 
only use was in what he produced. Her political economy, 
as here exhibited, certainly needs revision, even though it 
be time honored and popular. It is as a consumer that 
man now exhibits his real value ; machinery is now the 
great producer and man is only its attendant, or if you 
please, its helper, to keep it in order, to see that it runs 
smooth, is well fed and cleaned, and supplied with work. 
Machinery does nine tenths of the real work done in general 
production, and man but one tenth. Times have changed, 
and we had better change some of our old axiomatic saws, 
whether made by Poor Richard, or any other old saw 
maker, for new ones, adapted to things as they are. 

Machinery produces, but man only still remains the con- 
sumer, and we may safely defy the inventor to find a substi- 
tute. Therefore man now stands in at least the same favor- 
able relation of importance to ' the manufacturer and pro- 
ducer as the cart horse does to the cartman. The cartman 
is dependent upon the condition of his horse for service ; if 
the cart horse is in good condition he will do good service ; 
but if he is badly fed, poorly kept, out of order, and service 
is still required of him, not only will he not do the service, 
but his keeper is quite likely to have an account to settle 
with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
So, if the workingman is kept at work, well paid, and in 
good condition, he will buy and consume liberally of all the 
products of our industries ; but if he is not kept at work 
and well paid, he consumes little or nothing, his market is 
lost, he becomes valueless to society, and suffers great dis- 
tress. Would it not be well to have a Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Man, which should look after his em- 
ployment, and consequent ability to consume. It is man as 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 85 

a consumer that we must deal with in order to make our 
present system and object of production a success, and it is 
because we have not done so that we are in the midst of 
such great and general distress. 

These are new and strange doctrines. So is machinery- 
new ; and the whistle of the locomotive, and rush and roar 
of the following train were equally strange to our fathers ; 
still they were realities not to be wiped out as a child with 
wet sponge wipes the figures from its slate. 

Let us now see how and where these great producing and 
manufacturing interests have been seeking consumption and 
markets. At home not an effort, not a thought even, has 
been expended by the manufacturer or producer in the im- 
provement of the condition of the consumer, or man as 
such. The only effort has been to prevent foreign competi- 
tion, and secure to themselves the exclusive right to get the 
greatest possible production upon the least possible return 
for consumption by their own operatives. But no amount 
of expense has been spared, and no amount of labor has 
been withheld in the effort to obtain foreign markets. In 
this effort to build up a foreign trade there has been a con- 
stant and relentless effort to produce more and more, and 
cheaper and cheaper. To accomplish this, machinery has 
been constantly improved, making it more and more u self- 
operative," thus throwing out of employment and into idle- 
ness more and more of hand labor ; and wages have been 
just as constantly and relentlessly reduced, until the average 
earnings in all our industries are far below the point that 
yields the necessaries of life. 

Now, what is the result? Simply this : that after an effort 
of full thirty years we have obtained a foreign trade which 
consumes less than five per cent, of our whole product — 
some say less than two per cent. — at the cost of the ruin 
of our own home trade and consumption by the impover- 
ishment of our people, in the effort to manufacture and sell 
goods in foreign markets, to pauper and half civilized pop- 
ulations, at a less price than can be done by the crowded 
and half starved peoples of Europe. Look over the coun- 
try ; you will find the evidence indelibly impressed upon 
every interest, and ground into every heart. 

England well illustrates the results of manufacturing for 
and dependence upon foreign trade, with neglect of her 
home market. For nearly twenty years she has practically 
controlled the markets of the world for all the manufactures 



86 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 

we can produce, and has been almost without competition 
as the world's carrier upon the ocean. Now, we see the 
result in the utter demoralization of all her manufactures, 
the distress of all her industries, the idleness of her great 
commercial fleet, the constant strikes and violence, and the 
1,150,000 work people dependent on parochial aid, in a 
population equal to only about one half our own. It is 
quite possible we might take her place when we have suc- 
ceeded in sinking our own people into lower depths of pov- 
erty than the English have yet sounded, and not before. Is 
it a good thing to try? Or do we expect to escape the in- 
exorable sequence of cause and effect? Would it not be 
well to see if, under present indications, the great vein of 
the " foreign market " is not already nearly worked out. 

True, we have a balance of trade in our favor ; which 
shows how little we are dependent upon foreign products ; 
and of the amount which we do get from abroad no doubt 
four fifths at least could be produced at home to the great- 
est advantage to ourselves. But how and why have we this 
balance in our favor? Because, in the first place, we are 
too poor to buy more ; and in the second place, because of 
the war in Eastern Europe, which has closed the great food 
exporting ports of Russia, and its neighborhood, causing an 
extraordinary and transient demand upon us for food, and 
because of the supply of war material to the combatants. 
This will soon end ; then what? Let us see the prospect. 

Among those who prominently appear as exporters of 
their products, and which form a large item in this favorable 
balance, are inventors and builders of machinery. Our im- 
proved agricultural tools and machines are sent all over the 
world. Europe and Asia, North Africa and South Africa, 
Peru, Chili, Brazil, Central America, and Mexico, with the 
English, French, and Dutch colonies, all buy them, learn to 
use them, and copy them when they can ; in every case that 
they also may improve their agriculture, produce more 
abundantly, save labor, buy less from us, and sell to their 
neighbors. Do not imagine that they are not succeeding, 
though still a long way behind us. 

Our engines and sugar mills, our cotton gins, our ma- 
chine cards, spinners, looms, locomotives, saw T s, planers, 
watch machinery, telegraphs, telephones, presses, sewing 
machines, and shoe machines — in fact everything we make 
for the purpose of saving labor, and possessing superior 
merit — are scattered all over the globe, with the skilled 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 87 

workmen to put them up and teach their use. The 300 lo- 
comotives recently built in Philadelphia for Russia, were 
sent home with scores of our engineers to put them up and 
teach the Muscovite their care and use ; and the Lowell 
Machine Shop have orders from Russia for our improved 
machine spinners, etc., as is publicly reported. Hardly a 
bale of goods, or case of shoes, or any other product leave 
our ports for the foreign market unaccompanied by the ma- 
chinery which produced them. The superiority of our ma- 
chinery is generally understood abroad, and if they cannot 
build their own they can buy from us, learn their use from 
us, and take our machines as patterns to build others by, 
and improve upon, if they can. All the world outside of 
Yankeedom are not fools ; they can learn as well as we 
can teach, and be sure they will improve upon our lessons. 

Then we have pioneers, u prospecters," in every nook 
and corner of the earth, hunting for a place where a ma- 
chine may be set up, and the people there set to running it, 
to supply themselves with their own products, save labor, 
introduce new methods, new ideas, new wants, and make 
money. Go where you may, these operations are found in 
action, not by the Yankee alone, but also by the English- 
man, German, and Frenchman, who are all as earnest and 
persistent as ourselves. The results of all these develop- 
ments in machinery are most marked. Throughout Eu- 
rope, in some countries more and in others less, it is the 
same as with us — great idleness and poverty, large stocks 
and no markets — everywhere less dependence on the for- 
eigner for food, clothing, or any product of civilization. 

Our efforts to spread our machinery all over creation, so 
far as we can reach it (at present we have no road to the 
moon nor Jupiter, nor other planet) does not end^here. At 
much cost and trouble we have sent our machines to the 
"World's Fairs at London, Paris, and Vienna ; we invested 
millions in a great International Exhibition in Philadelphia, 
and invited all the world to the show, as exhibiters or visit- 
ors. Two of the largest buildings on the ground were de- 
voted almost exclusively to the exhibition of our machinery 

— Machinery Hall and a government building — besides 
numbers of private buildings. Europe sent her commis- 
sioners and committees, and Japan sent hers also ; Brazil 
sent her Emperor ;' most of the countries of the globe had 
their representatives to examine and take special note of 

— what? Not of the textiles which we made, the boots and 
shoes which we produced, nor of the thousand and one 



88 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

products which we exhibited ; all those things were mere 
incidents, none of which they wanted. But what was 
wanted were the machines with which all these things were 
produced. Machinery Hall was the center of attraction, 
the point of study for every thoughtful man and woman 
who studied the exhibition, and its contents were the sub- 
ject of the most numerous and valuable reports made by the 
foreign visitors. This year we have sent three or more ves- 
sels from our navy, in great part freighted with machinery, 
at a cost of $70,000, as reported, to another exhibition at 
Paris, with commissioners, experts, and inventors in battal- 
ions, to still wider spread the market and use of our ma- 
chinery. So you see that while a great many short sighted 
people are hoping and expecting relief by a development of 
demand and consumption of our products abroad, the most 
powerful interests that we have are using all their power to 
break down all foreign demand, by giving to every other 
people the means to produce for themselves, and we are at 
last thrown back upon our home consumption for all the 
relief we shall ever have. Here is a specimen dispatch 
from New York to the Boston Journal, of date of April 13, 
1878. Listen to its contents. " Six steamers sail to-day for 
Europe. Included in their large cargoes of American pro- 
ducts and manufactures are 1,000 packages mowers and 
reapers, 1,500 packages hardware, and 100 tons agricultu- 
ral machines." Every steamer day this dispatch is repeated 
in tone and kind ; so it is from the ports of Boston and 
Philadelphia. This marks the current. It is the handwrit- 
ing on the wall ; do we need a Daniel to interpret it ? 

I cannot imagine a greater folly than that of those per- 
sons who expect that all the nations of the earth, or any one 
people on.the globe, will permit us, or others, to do their 
manufacturing for them, or grow the food they eat. We 
have evidence of this in the greediness with which they are 
adopting labor saving machinery ; the anxiety that all ex- 
hibit to extend their own productions and manufactures, and 
the fierceness with which they all enter into the strife for 
what they also call foreign markets. And more than all we 
see it in the enormous amount of idleness in all the coun- 
tries of Europe, caused by the imperfect machinery they 
now have. Under these operations even old Spain, the 
very last country in Europe, I would have thought, to have 
suffered from this cause, is writhing in distress, the intelli- 
gence being that in the district of Catalonia alone 119 fac- 
tories have stopped, and 9,000 work people are thrown out 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 89 

of employment. And they also propose to find foreign 
markets for their products. Where? When they have ob- 
tained our new and improved machinery they may multiply 
the 119 and the 9,000 by at least three, and the resulting 
distress by any figure they please, and still fail to express it. 

In illustration of this point I clip from the Boston Journal 
of the nth inst. the following item : " One very important 
cause of the present stagnation in the English cotton manu- 
facturing districts is the fact that in China, India, and Japan 
the production of cotton fabrics is steadily increasing. This 
fact gives rise to the most gloomy speculations concerning 
the future of England as a manufacturing country, for if 
these countries produce their own cotton goods England 
will lose her markets." Do not mistake the significance of 
this statement, for "'tis the knell" of the foreign market. 

The same greed, the same avarice, the same passion to 
beat their neighbors, the same neglect of the condition of 
their own people, the same distress, the same looking 
abroad for the relief that can be found only at home, is 
found with other people that is found with us ; and all, 
sooner or later, must apply the same remedy. 

This remedy certainly is not to be found in turning the 
great mass of the idle into any one industry, even though 
the industry be that of agriculture, so often named by many 
of our most worthy people. The accomplishment of this 
idea would be a partial depopulation of the manufacturing 
and trading sections, and overcrowding of the agricultural ; 
an enormous reduction of the food market, and immense 
increase in food products, with no market ; inevitably re- 
sulting in still wider and deeper distress. Agriculture is 
one of the businesses most thoroughly revolutionized by 
machinery. Already it is one of the most uncertain and 
unprofitable of callings ; and, with the present rush and de- 
velopment, will be sure to follow widespread and serious 
disasters. Wipe out the carding machine and power loom, 
with agricultural machinery, and restore the hand card and 
spinning wheel, with the wood plow and sickle — bring 
back the last century — then talk of agriculture as the rem- 
edy, and not before. Even if the present unemployed could 
there find an existence, it would be simply an animal exist- 
ence, in conflict with the whole development of the age. 
Expedients will not answer. The remedy must be general, 
not special. 

Relief we must have ; the evils I have shown to exist are 
too great, too wide spread, too rapidly developing and in- 



9 o 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES: 



creasing in intensity to be much longer borne. If relief is 
not found in peaceful and legal ways, it is sure to be found 
in violence. Already we have had symptoms not to be 
mistaken, and they should be received as warnings. The 
distress with us is national, and the relief to be effective 
must also be national. No local action can possibly reach 
the case, and least of all local strikes. Strikes are in all 
ways bad things, rarely or never accomplishing the end de- 
sired except at very great cost. Still there is very ancient 
and high precedent for even strikes, proving them not to be 
new inventions. No doubt you have all learned something 
of the old bookmakers' strike, some three thousand two 
hundred years ago, led by those two pestilent fellows, as no 
doubt thought their taskmasters, named Moses and Aaron, 
instigated by that Being known as Jehovah. The narrative 
may be found in that old volume called the Bible, which I 
believe is still in print. That Being's ears are still open to 
the cry of distress, and He still avenges the wrongs of the 
oppressed, but in His own way, and His ways are not our 
ways. Therefore I say relief must be found ; and how? 

The process is by no means mysterious nor uncertain. 

The relief is to be found in the distribution of the work 
to be done among all who will take a part in it. Here is 
the point I have been approaching, and is the vital point in 
the whole discussion, that the only way in which the great 
idleness in our country can be remedied, and the enormous 
distress and crime resulting from that idleness can find re- 
lief, is in the distribution of the work to be done among all 
who will work. Instead of a system that at best gives but 
uncertain and transient employment to not more than one 
half of our workers, while the other half are practically 
idle, living God only knows how, divide the work so that 
every one can count with reasonable certainty upon con- 
stant, permanent employment, then the first great element 
of universal content and prosperity w T ill be established. 
Do not misunderstand me. When I say constant, per- 
manent employment, I do not mean that man shall work 
24 hours every day, nor 15 hours, nor 10 hours ; but that 
day by day he shall work for his daily bread ; that for six 
days in every week he shall have work, and upon the 
seventh only he shall do no manner of work. That, in 
short, a normal day's work shall be established ; the number 
of hours per day shall be fixed — no matter what that num- 
ber may be — in which all by working shall produce abun- 
dantly for all. The standard for fixing that normal day, 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT. 91 

which must be flexible, must be the employment or nonem- 
ployment of all who will work, and the consumption of all 
products. Facts as easily ascertained as the market price 
of any product, and as easily regulated as the movements 
of a machine. Let these two elements of employment and 
consumption stand for the column of mercury in the indus- 
trial tube, with time for the regulator. When the column 
stands at 30, or above, all will be fair and prosperous ; 
when it falls to 28, or below, be sure a storm approaches, 
and the thumb screw of time must be shortened, or possi- 
bly lengthened, to meet the changing conditions. If it re- 
quires only one half of all the working classes, working ten 
hours a day, to produce enough for all, leaving the other 
half idle, then all working but five hours a day will pro- 
duce an equal amount — still enough for all — and none 
will be idle. This principle is self evident. In this way, 
and in this way only, can all the wage receivers and salary 
earners be taken out of idleness, be put to work and made 
self supporting — be made contributors to the general wel- 
fare and increase of capital. 

Again, I say, it does not matter what that length of time 
may be. It is not the time worked that enters into trade 
and commerce, that is eaten or worn, and which gives the 
profit or loss, but it is the product consumed. With our 
improved machinery we can produce at least five times, but 
we will say three times, as much in five hours as we could 
without the machinery in ten hours. Consequently if five 
hours a day were fixed as the normal day's work, and that 
normal day should find work for all, there would be at least 
three times the production, three times the trade, and three 
times the opportunity for profit, than heretofore, always 
provided the product were consumed. As to the power of 
our millions to consume the additional products, if they can 
but obtain them, there can be no two opinions. Now the 
amount of consumption by the whole of the working class- 
es, employed and unemployed, does not exceed, on an av- 
erage, 70 cents a day. Do you think they would find any 
difficulty in consuming three times as much, $2.10 a day; 
or five times as much, $3.50 a day? and even more than 
that? I do not mean simply so many more dollars; but 
three, five, or more yards of cloth, of pounds of food, of 
rooms occupied, of miles traveled, of pews and seats filled, 
of lectures and concerts heard, of books, papers, and peri- 
odicals bought, and everything else which goes to make up 
and advance our civilization. Our whole trouble lies in the 



92 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 

fact that they are not doing it now. There is not a producer, 
manufacturer, or trader in our country who does not know 
that our wage earning^ salary receiving people would con- 
sume more than three times the present amount, if they 
only had the means to do so. The inevitable result of this 
increased consumption would be a largely increased pro- 
duction, trade, and price for everything, manufactures espe- 
cially, and for food and raw products. This is just what 
capital and manufacturers need, and to the workman would 
be no hardship. General cheapness means general poverty. 
It is not cheap products that are needed, but the ability to 
buy and consume all products at remunerative prices. The 
increase in demand for labor that would set all at work 
would have the direct effect of increasing the rates of wages 
and salaries, and the combined effect of all these operations 
would be a vast increase in the volume of trade, into which 
capital would throw its drag net, with the sure result of be- 
ing well filled. 

It is very probable that this advance in prices would end 
what we please to call our foreign trade or market for the 
two to five per cent, of our products which we now export, 
but the compensation will be found in the two or three hun- 
dred per cent, or more increase in trade at home. But to 
obtain the tea, coffee, spices, etc., that we need from abroad 
we could still make profitable exchanges. 

This state of affairs is demanded just as much by capital 
as by labor, and its success wholly depends upon making 
all of our own people consumers of the products of our ma- 
chinery. Without their full consumption " self operative " 
machinery is a curse ; but making every man, woman, and 
child consumers to the extent of their capacity, would make 
machinery the greatest boon of civilization. But whether 
a blessing or curse, machinery we have and machinery we 
will continue to have, constantly increasing in development. 
We may as well try to turn back the wheels of time as to 
stop the device and use of machinery as the great force that 
supplants muscular labor in all the processes of production. 
Neither should it be stopped ; it is the greatest of civilizers ; 
it is the most potent lever that man can use to lift the sav- 
age and half civilized up to a plane where true Christian 
civilization can be firmly planted. All that is wanted is a 
social and political regulator that shall so control its move- 
ments as to make it the servant of man, not his master. 
Machinery is the force that will lift man out of slavery for 
a mere animal existence, and make the highest development 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 93 

possible ; or it is the stone that will grind him to powder. 
We have the utmost freedom of choice ; which shall it be? 

In all these operations capital occupies a peculiar vantage 
ground. In the first production of the raw material capital 
takes toll ; in its multitudinous transformations capital again 
takes toll ; in the transportation and storage it is again 
tolled ; in all its handlings and changes, from the time the soil 
is first turned to receive the seed for the raw product, until 
it reaches its ultimate market in the final consumption, eve- 
rything is done under our wage and salary system, in which 
capital becomes the agent in every movement, always tak- 
ing toll and returning to the pockets of the capitalist with 
all the profits in all the transactions ; and it is the depth, 
volume, and strength of the great current of trade, depend- 
ent entirely upon the amount of consumption, that opens or 
closes to capital its opportunities for increase. 

Of itself capital produces nothing ; it is only a powerful 
agent in the concentration of labor upon any given point, as 
illustrated in the operations of the war, and in the distribu- 
tion of the products of labor. It is also a loadstone which 
draws to itself every particle of the profits of labor that 
come under its influence. No matter what wages are paid 
to workers or producers, every cent of it, sooner or later, 
returns to the capitalist for a small share of the product just 
produced. This is abundantly shown in the Massachusetts 
Labor Report for 1875, in a table heretofore referred to. 
With their wages they buy food, clothing, shelter, school- 
ing ; help to build churches and sustain a ministry ; give 
business to railroads, merchants, brokers, bankers, and pay 
taxes and dues to government, demands and charities of 
every nature, all in exact proportion to the wages received. 
The absolutely true interest of capital lies in the payment 
of the highest wages that can be used by working people 
in the consumption of products. Labor keeps nothing ; it 
either consumes the whole in products, or returns the sur- 
plus to capital as a trust, and how unyieldingly that trust is 
sometimes kept we have had too much evidence. 

Every man who in any way limits or diminishes the 
means whereby the million, whether individually or collec- 
tively, may obtain the power to consume liberally of all the 
products of the soil, the factory, and workshop, is an enemy 
to capital and production, and strikes a blow at the welfare 
of every interest. 

The application of the principles here laid down would 
at once prove a remedy for all the social evils which grow 



94 



OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES : 



out of idleness, among which stands prominent the tramp 
problem. The tramp is a new development with us, mak- 
ing his first appearance within the last few years, entirely 
within the later period of the displacement of muscle by 
machinery, and growing directly out of it. The impatient, 
uneasy, unfriended workman, forced to idleness in town or 
country, cannot remain in one place, and starts out, dead 
broke, to travel until he can find work ; he travels ; every- 
where it is the same ; he finds no work. He must eat, and 
at first begs his food, then when occasion offers he steals it, 
and sleeps where he can ; and so from one step to another 
he develops into a thorough paced vagabond and criminal. 
The commencement is enforced idleness ; the end is not 
yet ; and the class has developed in proportion with the 
general idleness and misery. The only remedy is work 
within the reach of all ; all efforts at repression without 
first removing the cause will be utterly vain. 

I have at some length, yet as briefly as possible, shown 
you how machinery displaces manual labor, and the effects 
which have grown out of that displacement ; effects which 
lie at the root, not only of our own great distress, but that 
common distress pervading all Christendom. No matter 
what the form of government may be, or the kind or quan- 
tity of its money, whether gold, silver, or paper, mixed or 
unmixed, hard or soft, steady or unsteady, in nearly exact 
ratio with the extent of the use of machinery is the idleness 
and distress of the people ; as the one is developed the 
other obtains. Here is matter which challenges the atten- 
tion of every one, none more so than the great leaders of 
thought who fill our pulpits, and can reach the understand- 
ing and conscience of rich and poor alike ; and especially 
do these matters demand the attention of all governments. 
Are the facts which I have here given true? Does machin- 
ery enter as a large factor into general production, to the 
displacement of muscle? Does the general ratio of em- 
ployment of muscle become lessened, and idleness result 
from these operations? Is machinery being introduced and 
used in other countries, by other peoples, in the develop- 
ment of their productions, either in kind, quality, or quan- 
tity? Do the same results follow its use in all countries? 

These are questions of momentous- consequence, reach- 
ing away down through all the phases of our social and 
political life, to the very roots of our civilization, and they 
must be authoritatively answered. The assent or dissent, 
the capricious criticisms of the ignorant or prejudiced, or 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT 95 

any who see but one fact, and that partially, without un- 
derstanding it, or seeing its connections, will amount to but 
little. What is wanted is an intelligent, authoritative ex- 
amination of the problem, by a body having the power and 
will to go to the bottom of the whole question ; and who, 
through our foreign agents and consuls, can obtain all the 
facts as to the use and development of machinery abroad, 
and its effects on labor. If these things are not really true, 
as they now appear to be, the inquiry will at least have 
resulted in a negative benefit ; we shall know of one thing 
which does not work injuriously, and have gained some- 
thing in directing further search. But these things are 
true, and the story is not half told. 

This body must be a commission from the General Gov- 
ernment, clothed with full powers. Such a commission 
can, in the time between its appointment and the meeting 
of the next Congress, collect all the data necessary to a cor- 
rect conclusion, and upon information thus obtained intelli- 
gent action may be taken. If it be found that what I have 
presented is only a limited and imperfect (as all individual 
efforts must be), though generally correct showing of the 
real facts, the road to the remedy is very short, and entirely 
practicable. The people of these United States are pos- 
sessed of all the means for obtaining a speedy, quiet, and 
legal remedy that will establish our prosperity upon a firmer 
foundation than ever before, and give the start in a new de- 
velopment far exceeding anything that has yet been known. 
In less than one year after it has been determined what is 
the matter, and what must be done, the whole tendency and 
current of our affairs may be changed, without shock or 
disaster to any interest, but with satisfaction and prosperity 
in all. 

The adoption of this remedy by us will necessarily com- 
pel its adoption by all other countries in the interest of their 
own governments and peoples. Our example would be 
irresistible. Our movement in self advancement and self 
protection would be more quickly imitated than has ma- 
chinery been developed. 

To set this movement under way the people must take 
action, must organize, and by memorial appear before the 
Government at Washington, praying the appointment of 
the commission required to examine into these matters ; 
and in their organized capacity collect all the facts ob- 
tainable bearing upon the questions propounded, digest 
them, and lay them before the commission for their aid in 



96 OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES. 

the search, and be prepared with a memorial, representing 
all our industrial interests, ready to lay before the Govern- 
ment simultaneously with the report of the commission, 
praying for the legislation which may be found necessary. 
No matter what that legislation may be, there lies in the 
people, by legal ways and methods, the power for its full 
attainment. Not only have the people the right, but it is 
their duty, and of the first importance, to provide for and 
protect the common welfare. No doubt legislation must be 
obtained, for without it avarice, always blind, utterly reck- 
less, purely selfish, whether in possession of millions or but 
a few dimes, would find means to overreach and defeat the 
general good. But in the general public, whether rich or 
poor, the capitalist or the laborer, I believe there exists a 
strong desire to find the real cause of our distresses, and to 
apply the necessary remedies. 

In Boston an Association known as the National Indus- 
trial Association has been initiated for the purpose of aid- 
ing in the attainment of the objects I have just recommend- 
ed, and this Association needs, and very naturally desires, 
the cooperation of similar organizations throughout the 
country, to secure concerted and effective action. To draw 
attention to these facts and to make an earnest effort to in- 
quire into their significance, is the great object of my pres- 
ence here to-day ; not to throw out a few suggestions, cre- 
ate a little sensation, and then rest content to have it buried 
out of sight ; but to secure action, and such action as must 
result in practical good. Again, I say, w r e have all the ele- 
ments within our control by which we can reach the result 
sought for. The whole machinery to set this movement in 
full operation will not require one half the thought and in- 
ventive skill required in the machine to light our street 
lamps, and the cost to Government and individuals will not 
be one tenth of that incurred in the sending of our machin- 
ery to Paris for exhibition. But the resulting benefit, even 
in the inception of the inquiry, by simply the hope that 
would grow out of it, would be incalculable. Is it not 
worth the effort? There is, perhaps, no voluntary organi- 
zation in this country that can exercise a greater influence 
in these matters than this Social Science Association. May 
I not hope that it will take some direct action to assist in 
the effort to replace the labor that machinery has displaced, 
that all men may be enabled to work upon the six days of 
every week, and rest upon the seventh, and that day by 
day we may have our daily bread ? 



lt«tiA4irt«tii< 



OUR 



LIBOR DIFFICULTIES: 



THE CAUSE, AND THE WAY OUT: 



THE PAPER ON THE 



DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR BY IMPROVEMENTS 
IN MACHINERY, 



By a Commit ikk appointed by the American Social Science Association, 

COMPOSED OF LORIN BLODGET, OF PHILADELPHIA, Rev. EDWARD E. HALE. 

W. Godwin- Moody, John J. McNutt, and H. C. Turner, of 

Boston, and read before the Association at their 

Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. May 24, 1878, 



By W. GODWIN MOODY. 



BOSTON: 

A. WILLIAMS & CO., 

283 Washington St. 

1878. 



■ 1 1 i 1 1 1 i i 1 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 b ' 1 a ! ■; s 1 1 a n 1 1 1 u 1 1 1 ■ b 1 1 ■ i ■ 1 1 1 a 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 i « i i >. 
Single Copies, 25 Cents. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE, 

MACHlNElil vs. MUSCLE, 

A LECTURE candidly and plainly discussing the Labo 
Problem in the most interesting manner, has been preparer 
and will be used by the subscriber as a means of imparling 
information of the greatest value to all, and in helping to 
rational solution of this Great Problem. 

The attention of Lyceums, Lecture Associations, and Bu- 
reaus, is respectfully called to this new Lecture and greates 
of themes. 

All desired information given on application, by letter 01 
otherwise, to W. GODWIN MOODY, 

Boston, Mass. 



NOTES AND NOTICES OF 

"OUR LABOR DIFFICULTIES," AND "THE DISPLACE- 
MENT OF LABOR BY IMPROVEMENTS 
IN MACHINERY." 

[From well known Citizens of Salem, Mass.] 

Salem. December 27, 1877. 
We cordially approve the effort being made by Mr. W. Godwir 
Moody to obtain a better understanding of the Labor Problem, and 
earnestly recommend that all classes, employers and employed, 
men and women, alike join in the memorial and study the facts 
contained in his essay upon " Our Labor Difficulties." 
A. H. WEBBER, HENRY K. OLIVER, 

[Editor of Salem Post.] [Mayor of the City of Salem.] 

W. D. NORTHEND, F. ISRAEL, 

[Attorney at Law.] [Pastor of First Unitarian Church.] 

CHARLES A. BENJAMIN, CHAS. AREY, 

[Attorney at Law. J [DD., Rector of Episcopal Church.] 

MARY Y. WARD, E. S. ATWOOD, 

[Pastor of Congregational Church.] 

MARY EVANS OLIVER. 



[From Rev. Carlos C. Carpenter, D.D.. pastor of Mt. Fleas- 
ant Congregational (U'nitarian) Church, Boston.'] 
Mr. Moody: Boston, May 15, 1S7S. 

Dear Sir : — It bas given me unalloyed pleasure to read your 
very interesting paper on the "Displacement of Labor by Machin- 
ery." For I thoroughly endorse your opinion as to the leading- 
causes of the present industrial depression, and I earnestly hope 
that the facts which you have gathered, and the remedies you pro- 
pose, will speedily be brought before the attention of the American 
people. Very truly Yours, 

CARLOS C. CARPENTER. 

See pages tw.a and three of cover for additional Notices. 



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